GIFT  OF 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


^  Qllfapter  of  ^gBkinatk  SClj^oIogg 


BY 

AUGUSTUS  HOPKINS  STRONG 

D.D.,  LL.D.      /' 

President  Emeritus  of  the  Rochester 
Theological  Seminary 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON  CHICAGO 

ST.  LOUIS  TORONTO.  CAN. 


*»  • 


S  g  3 


J 


Copyright  1913  by 
A.  J.  ROWLAND,  Secretary 

Published  August,  1913 


0IIimt0  ^^0  ^^il&atmrt 


PREFACE 


I  HAVE  been  asked  to  reprint  in  compendious 
form  the  chapter  of  my  "  Systematic  The- 
ology "  on  Union  with  Christ,  and  in  this  way 
to  make  it  accessible  to  a  wider  circle  of  read- 
ers. On  account  of  its  scholastic  method  of 
treatment,  I  have  hesitated  to  offer  it  to  the 
general  public.  But  further  solicitations  have 
overcome  my  fears,  and  I  now  print  the  chap- 
ter, which  occupies  pages  793-809  of  the  larger 
work,  with  the  hope  that  it  may  meet  the  needs 
of  some  who  are  not  theological  students. 

Let  me  add  a  quotation  from  an  earlier 
essay  in  my  book  "  Philosophy  and  Religion," 
pages  220-225,  a  few  sentences  with  regard  to 
the  effects  upon  the  world  which  may  be  ex- 
pected to  follow  the  full  recognition  by  tTie 
church  of  this  doctrine  of  Union  with  Christ: 
"  Humanity  is  a  dead  and  shattered  vine, 
plucked  up  from  its  roots  in  God,  and  fit  only 
for  the  fires.    But  in  Christ,  God  has  planted  a 


PREFACE 

new  vine,  a  vine  full  of  his  own  divine  life,  a 
vine  into  which  it  is  his  purpose  one  by  one 
to  graft  these  dead  and  withered  branches,  so 
that  they  may  once  more  have  the  life  of  God 
flowing  through  them  and  may  bear  the  fruits 
of  heaven.  It  is  a  supernatural,  not  a  natural, 
process.  But  the  things  that  are  impossible  with 
men  are  possible  with  God,  and  the  process 
shall  not  cease  until  he  has  gathered  together 
in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  and  in  him  has 
perfectly  redeemed  and  glorified  the  humanity 
for  which  and  to  which  Christ  has  given  his 
life." 

Augustus  H.  Strong. 

Rochester,  June  14,  1913. 


•  • 


••• : 


Union  with  Christ 


The  redemption  wrought  out  object- 
ively by  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  Cross 
needs  to  be  subjectively  applied.  Elec- 
tion and  Calling  prepare  the  way;  the 
actual  beginning  of  this  application  in- 
cludes Union  with  Christ,  Regenera- 
tion, Conversion  (embracing  Repent- 
ance and  Faith),  and  Justification. 
Much  confusion  and  error  have  arisen 
from  conceiving  these  as  occurring  in 
chronological  order.  The  order  is 
logical,  not  chronological.  As  it  is  only 
*'  in  Christ  "  that  man  is  "  a  new  crea- 
ture "  (2  Cor.  5:  17)  or  is  "justified" 
(Acts  13:  39),  union  with  Christ  logic- 
ally   precedes    both    regeneration    and 


•   •    •    »e   *      J 
•     5    ?/•   e      c 


'.••.••  ':  luM^N'WITH  CHRIST 

justification;  and  yet,  chronologically, 
the  moment  of  our  union  with  Christ  is 
also  the  moment  when  we  are  regener- 
ated and  justified.  So  too,  regenera- 
tion and  conversion  are  but  the  divine 
and  human  sides  or  aspects  of  the  same 
fact,  although  regeneration  has  logical 
precedence,  and  man  turns  only  as  God 
turns  him.  Sanctification  and  Perse- 
verance are  the  continuation  of  this 
application,  Sanctification  being  the 
divine,  and  Perseverance  the  human, 
side  of  one  and  the  same  process. 

Dorner,  Glaubenslehre,  3:694  (Syst.  Doct., 
4:  159),  gives  at  this  point  an  account  of  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  general.  The  Holy 
Spirit's  work,  he  says,  presupposes  the  his- 
torical work  of  Christ,  and  prepares  the  way 
for  Christ's  return.  "  As  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  principle  of  union  between  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  so  he  is  the  principle  of  union  be- 
tween God  and  man.  Only  through  the  Holy 
Spirit  does  Christ  secure   for   himself  those 

10 


UNION  wiTHyoiikfsi\' 


who  will  love  him  as  distinct  and  free  per- 
sonalities." Regeneration  and  conversion  are 
not  chronologically  separate.  Which  of  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel  starts  first?  The  ray  of 
light  and  the  ray  of  heat  enter  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. Sensation  and  perception  are  not  sepa- 
rated in  time,  although  the  former  is  the  cause 
of  the  latter. 

"  Suppose  a  non-elastic  tube  extending 
across  the  Atlantic.  Suppose  that  the  tube  is 
completely  filled  with  an  incompressible  fluid. 
Then  there  would  be  no  interval  of  time  be- 
tween the  impulse  given  to  the  fluid  at  this  end 
of  the  tube,  and  the  effect  upon  the  fluid  at 
the  other  end."  See  Hazard,  Causation  and 
Freedom  in  Willing,  33-38,  who  argues  that 
cause  and  effect  are  always  simultaneous ;  else, 
in  the  intervening  time,  there  would  be  a 
cause  that  had  no  effect;  that  is,  a  cause  that 
caused  nothing;  that  is,  a  cause  that  was 
not  a  cause.  "  A  potential  cause  may  exist  for 
an  unlimited  period  without  producing  any 
effect,  and  of  course  may  precede  its  effect  by 
any  length  of  time.  But  actual,  effective  cause 
being  the  exercise  of  a  sufficient  power,  its 
effect  cannot  be  delayed;   for,  in  that  case, 

II 


k    6    *  *   •?  i,     i 


^**  «•.•*«' 


'UMI0N:WITH  CHRIST 


there  would  be  the  exercise  of  a  sufficient 
power  to  produce  the  effect,  without  pro- 
ducing it, — involving  the  absurdity  of  its 
being  both  sufficient  and  insufficient  at  the 
same  time. 

"  A  difficulty  may  here  be  suggested  in  re- 
gard to  the  flow  or  progress  of  events  in  time, 
if  they  are  all  simultaneous  with  their  causes. 
This  difficulty  cannot  arise  as  to  intelligent 
effort;  for,  in  regard  to  it,  periods  of  non- 
action may  continually  intervene;  but  if  there 
are  series  of  events  and  material  phenomena, 
each  of  which  is  in  turn  effect  and  cause,  it 
may  be  difficult  to  see  how  any  time  could 
elapse  between  the  first  and  last  of  the  series. 
....  If  however,  as  I  suppose,  these  series  of 
events,  or  material  changes,  are  always  effected 
through  the  medium  of  motion  it  need  not 
trouble  us,  for  there  is  precisely  the  same  dif- 
ficulty in  regard  to  our  conception  of  the 
motion  of  matter  from  point  to  point,  there 
being  no  space  or  length  between  any  two  con- 
secutive points,  and  yet  the  body  in  motion 
gets  from  one  end  of  a  long  line  to  the  other, 
and  in  this  case  this  difficulty  just  neutralizes 
the  other So,  even  if  we  cannot  conceive 

12 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


how  motion  involves  the  idea  of  time,  we  may 
perceive  that,  if  it  does  so,  it  may  be  a  means 
of  conveying  events,  which  depend  upon  it, 
through  time  also." 

Martineau,  Study,  i:  148-150 — "Simultane- 
ity does  not  exclude  duration," — since  each 
cause  has  duration  and  each  effect  has  dura- 
tion also.  Bowne,  Metaphysics,  106 — "  In 
the  system,  the  complete  ground  of  an  event 
never  lies  in  any  one  thing,  but  only  in  a  com- 
plex of  things.  If  a  single  thing  were  the 
sufficient  ground  of  an  effect,  the  effect  would 
coexist  with  the  thing,  and  all  effects  would  be 
instantaneously  given.  Hence  all  events  in  the 
system  must  be  viewed  as  the  result  of  the  in- 
teraction of  two  or  more  things." 

The  first  manifestation  of  life  in  an  infant 
may  be  in  the  lungs  or  heart  or  brain,  but  that 
which  makes  any  and  all  of  tTiese  manifesta- 
tions possible  is  the  antecedent  life.  We  may 
not  be  able  to  tell  which  comes  first,  but  hav- 
ing the  life  we  have  all  the  rest.  When  the 
wheel  goes,  all  the  spokes  will  go.  The  soul 
that  is  born  again  will  show  it  in  faith  and 
hope  and  love  and  holy  living.  Regeneration 
will  involve  repentance  and  faith  and  justifica- 


13 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


tion  and  sanctification.  But  the  one  life  which 
makes  regeneration  and  all  these  consequent 
blessings  possible  is  the  life  of  Christ  who 
joins  himself  to  us  in  order  that  we  may  join 
ourselves  to  him.  Anne  Reeve  Aldrich,  The 
Meaning : 

I  lost  my  life  in  losing  love. 

This  blurred  my  spring  and  killed  its  dove. 

Along  my  path  the  dying  roses 

Fell,  and  disclosed  the  thorns  thereof. 

I  found  my  life  in  finding  God. 

In  ecstasy  I  kiss  the  rod; 

For  who  that  wins  the  goal,  but  lightly 

Thinks  of  the  thorns  whereon  he  trod? 

See  A.  A.  Hodge,  on  the  Ordo  Salutis, 
in  Princeton  Rev.,  March,  1888:304-321. 
Union  with  Christ,  says  Doctor  Hodge,  "  is  ef- 
fected by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  effectual  calling. 
Of  this  calling  the  parts  are  two:  (a)  the  of- 
fering of  Christ  to  the  sinner,  externally  by 
the  gospel,  and  internally  by  the  illumination 
of  the  Holy  Ghost;  {b)  the  reception  of 
Christ,  which  on  our  part  is  both  passive  and 
active.  The  passive  reception  is  that  whereby 
a  spiritual  principle  is  ingenerated  into  the 
human  will,  whence  issues  the  active  reception, 

14 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


which  is  an  act  of  faith  with  which  repentance 
is  always  conjoined.  The  communion  of  bene- 
fits which  results  from  this  union  involves : 
(a)  a  change  of  state  or  relation,  called  justi- 
fication; and  (b)  a  change  of  subjective  moral 
character,  commenced  in  regeneration  and  com- 
pleted through  sanctification."  See  also  Doc- 
tor Hodge's  Popular  Lectures  on  Theological 
Themes,  340,  and  Outlines  of  Theology,  333- 
429. 

H.  B.  Smith,  however,  in  his  System  of 
Christian  Theology,  is  more  clear  in  the  put- 
ting of  Union  with  Christ  before  Regeneration. 
On  page  502,  he  begins  his  treatment  of  the 
Application  of  Redemption  with  the  title: 
"  The  Union  between  Christ  and  the  individual 
believer  as  effected  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
embraces  the  subjects  of  Justification,  Regen- 
eration, and  Sanctification,  with  the  underly- 
ing topic  which  comes  first  to  be  considered, 
Election."  He  therefore  treat's  Union  with 
Christ  (531-539)  before  Regeneration  (553- 
569).  He  says  Calvin  defines  regeneration  as 
coming  to  us  by  participation  in  Christ,  and 
apparently  agrees  with  this  view  (559),  de- 
claring : 


15 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


"  This  union  [with  Christ]  is  at  the  ground 
of  regeneration  and  justification"  (534)- 
"  The  great  difference  of  theological  systems 
comes  out  here.  Since  Christianity  is  redemp- 
tion through  Christ,  our  mode  of  conceiving 
that  will  determine  the  character  of  our  whole 
theological  system"  (536).  "The  union  with 
Christ  is  mediated  by  his  Spirit,  whence  we 
are  both  renewed  and  justified.  The  great  fact 
of  objective  Christianity  is  incarnation  in  order 
to  atonement;  the  great  fact  of  subjective 
Christianity  is  union  with  Christ,  whereby  we 
receive  the  atonement"  (537).  We  may  add 
that  this  union  with  Christ,  in  view  of  which 
God  elects  and  to  which  God  calls  the  sinner, 
is  begun  in  regeneration,  completed  in  conver- 
sion, declared  in  justification,  and  proved  in 
sanctification  and  perseverance. 

The  Scriptures  declare  that,  through 
the  operation  of  God,  there  is  consti- 
tuted a  union  of  the  soul  with  Christ 
different  in  kind  from  God's  natural 
and  providential  concursus  with  all 
spirits,  as  well  as  from  all  unions  of 

16 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


mere  association  or  sympathy,  moral 
likeness,  or  moral  influence, — ^a  union 
of  life,  in  which  the  human  spirit,  while 
then  most  truly  possessing  its  own  indi- 
viduality and  personal  distinctness,  is 
interpenetrated  and  energized  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  is  made  inscrutably 
but  indissolubly  one  with  him,  and  so 
becomes  a  member  and  partaker  of  that 
regenerated,  believing,  and  justified 
humanity  of  which  he  is  the  head. 

Union  with  Christ  is  not  union  with  a  system 
of  doctrine,  nor  with  external  rehgious  in- 
fluences, nor  with  an  organized  church,  nor 
with  an  ideal  man, — but  rather,  with  a  per- 
sonal, risen,  living,  omnipresent  Lord  (J.  W. 
A.  Stewart).  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander  well  calls 
this  doctrine  of  the  Union  of  the  Believer  with 
Christ  "  the  central  truth  of  all  theology  and  of 
all  religion."  Yet  it  receives  little  of  formal 
recognition,  either  in  dogmatic  treatises  or  in 
common  religious  experience.  Quenstedt,  886- 
912,  has  devoted  a  section  to  it;  A.  A.  Hodge 

B  17 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


gives  to  it  a  chapter,  in  his  Outlines  of  The- 
<^lo^>  369  ^q-,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for 
valuable  suggestions;  H.  B.  Smith  treats  of 
it,  not  however  as  a  separate  topic,  but  under 
the  head  of  Justification  (System,  531-539). 

The  majority  of  printed  systems  of  doctrine, 
however,  contain  no  chapter  or  section  on 
Union  with  Christ,  and  the  majority  of  Chris- 
tians much  more  frequently  think  of  Christ  as 
a  Saviour  outside  of  them,  than  as  a  Saviour 
who  dwells  within.  This  comparative  neglect 
of  the  doctrine  is  doubtless  a  reaction  from 
the  exaggerations  of  a  false  mysticism.  But 
there  is  great  need  of  rescuing  the  doctrine 
from  neglect.  For  this  we  rely  wholly  upon 
Scripture.  Doctrines  which  reason  can  neither 
discover  nor  prove  need  large  support  from  the 
Bible.  It  is  a  mark  of  divine  wisdom  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  for  example,  is  so  in- 
woven with  the  whole  fabric  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, that  the  rejection  of  the  former  is  the 
virtual  rejection  of  the  latter.  The  doctrine 
of  Union  with  Christ,  in  like  manner,  is  taught 
so  variously  and  abundantly,  that  to  deny  it  is 
to  deny  inspiration  itself.  See  Kahnis,  Luth. 
Dogmatik,  3 :  447-450- 


18 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


1.  Scripture  Representations  of  this 
Union, 

A.  Figurative  teaching.  It  is  illus- 
trated : 

(a)  From  the  union  of  a  building 
and  its  foundation. 

Eph.  2 :  20-22 — '*  being  built  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Christ 
Jesus  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone ;  in 
whom  each  several  building,  fitly  framed  to- 
gether, groweth  into  a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord ; 
in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  a 
habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit " ;  Col.  2 :  7 — 
"  builded  up  in  him  " — grounded  in  Christ  as 
our  foundation ;  i  Pet.  2 : 4,  5 — ''  unto  whom 
coming,  a  living  stone,  rejected  indeed  of  men, 
but  with  God  elect,  precious,  ye  also,  as  liv- 
ing stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house" — 
each  living  stone  in  the  Christian  temple  is 
kept  in  proper  relation  to  every  other,  and  is 
made  to  do  its  part  in  furnishing  a  habitation 
for  God,  only  by  being  built  upon  and  per- 
manently connected  with  Christ,  the  chief 
corner-stone.     Cf.  Ps.   118:22 — "The  stone 

19 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


which  the  builders  rejected  is  become  the  head 
of  the  corner";  Is.  28:  16 — ''  Behold,  I  lay  in 
Zion  for  a  foundation  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a 
precious  corner-stone  of  sure  foundation:  he 
that  believeth  shall  not  be  in  haste." 

(b)  From  the  union  between  hus- 
band and  wife. 

Rom.  7 :  4 — ''  ye  also  were  made  dead  to  the 
law  through  the  body  of  Christ ;  that  ye  should 
be  joined  to  another,  even  to  him  who  was  raised 
from  the  dead,  that  we  might  bring  forth  fruit 
unto  God  " — here  union  with  Christ  is  illus- 
trated by  the  indissoluble  bond  that  connects 
husband  and  wife,  and  makes  them  legally  and 
organically  one;  2  Cor.  11 :  2 — "  I  am  jealous 
over  you  with  a  godly  jealousy:  for  I  espoused 
you  to  one  husband,  that  I  might  present  you 
as  a  pure  virgin  to  Christ";  Eph.  5:31,  32 — 
"  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father 
and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife;  and 
the  two  shall  become  one  flesh.  This  mystery 
is  great:  but  I  speak  in  regard  to  Christ  and 
the  church  " — Meyer  refers  verse  31  wholly  to 
Christ,  and  says  that  Christ  leaves  father  and 

20 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


mother  (the  right  hand  of  God)  and  is  joined 
to  the  church  as  his  wife,  the  two  constituting 
thenceforth  one  moral  person.  He  makes  the 
union  future,  however,  **  For  this  cause  shall 
a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother  " — the  con- 
summation is  at  Christ's  second  coming.  But 
the  Fathers,  as  Chrysostom,  Theodoret,  and 
Jerome,  referred  it  more  properly  to  the  in- 
carnation. 

Rev.  19:7 — "the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is 
come,  and  his  wife  hath  made  herself  ready  " ; 
22:17 — "And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say, 
Come  " ;  cf.  Is.  54 :  5 — "  For  thy  Maker  is  thine 
husband  " ;  Jer.  3 :  20 — "  Surely  as  a  wife 
treacherously  departeth  from  her  husband,  so 
have  ye  dealt  treacherously  with  me,  O  house 
of  Israel,  saith  Jehovah  " ;  Hos.  2 :  2-5 — "  for 
their  mother  hath  played  the  harlot " — depart- 
ure from  God  is  adultery;  the  Song  of  Sol- 
omon ,  as  Jewish  interpreters  have  always 
maintained,  is  an  allegorical  poem  describing, 
under  the  figure  of  marriage,  the  union  be- 
tween Jehovah  and  his  people:  Paul  only 
adopts  the  Old  Testament  figure,  and  applies  it 
more  precisely  to  the  union  of  God  with  the 
church  in  Jesus  Christ. 

21 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


(c)  From  the  union  between  the  vine 
and  its  branches. 

John  15:  i-io — "  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the 
branches :  He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him, 
the  same  beareth  much  fruit:  fbr  apart  from 
me  ye  can  do  nothing  " — as  God's  natural  life 
is  in  the  vine,  that  it  may  give  life  to  its  natural 
branches,  so  God's  spiritual  life  is  in  the  vine, 
Christ,  that  he  may  give  life  to  his  spiritual 
branches.  The  roots  of  this  new  vine  are 
planted  in  heaven,  not  on  earth;  and  into  it 
the  half -withered  branches  of  the  old  humanity 
are  to  be  grafted,  that  tbey  may  have  life 
divine.  Yet  our  Lord  does  not  say  "  I  am  the 
root."  The  branch  is  not  something  outside, 
which  has  to  get  nourishment  out  of  the  root, 
— it  is  rather  a  part  of  the  vine.  Rom.  6:  5 — 
"  if  we  have  become  united  with  him  [aufiipOToe 
— '  grown  together ' — ^used  of  the  man  and 
horse  in  the  Centaur,  Xen.,  Cyrop.,  4:3: 18], 
in  the  likeness  of  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  in 
the  likeness  of  his  resurrection  " ;  11:  24 — 
"  thou  wast  cut  out  of  that  which  is  by  nature 
a  wild  olive  tree,  and  wast  grafted  contrary  to 
nature  into  a  good  olive  tree  " ;  Col.  2 :  6,  7 — 

22 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


"As  therefore  ye  received  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord,  so  walk  in  him,  rooted  and  builded  up 
in  him  " — not  only  grounded  in  Christ  as  our 
foundation,  but  thrusting  down  roots  into  him 
as  the  deep,  rich,  all-sustaining  soil.  This 
union  with  Christ  is  consistent  with  individ- 
uality :  for  the  graft  brings  forth  fruit  after  its 
kind,  though  modified  by  the  tree  into  which  it 
is  grafted. 

Bishop  H.  W.  Warren,  in  S.  S.  Times,  Oct. 
17,  1891 — ''  The  lessons  of  the  vine  are  inti- 
macy, likeness  of  nature,  continuous  imparta- 
tion  of  life,  fruit.  Between  friends  there  is 
intimacy  by  means  of  media,  such  as  food, 
presents,  care,  words,  soul  looking  from  the 
eyes.  The  mother  gives  her  liquid  flesh  to  the 
babe,  but  such  intimacy  soon  ceases.  The 
mother  is  not  rich  enough  in  life  continuously 
to  feed  the  ever-enlarging  nature  of  the  grow- 
ing man.  Not  so  with  the  vine.  It  continu- 
ously feeds.  Its  rivers  crowd  all  the  banks. 
They  burst  out  in  leaf,  blossom^  clinging  ten- 
drils, and  fruit,  everywhere.  In  nature  a  thorn 
grafted  on  a  pear  tree  bears  only  thorn.  There 
is  not  pear-life  enough  to  compel  change  of  its 
nature.    But  a  wild  olive,  typical  of  depraved 


23 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


nature,  grafted  on  a  good  olive  tree  finds,  con- 
trary to  nature,  that  there  is  force  enough  in 
the  growing  stock  to  change  the  nature  of  the 
wild  scion." 

{d)  From    the    union    between    the 
members  and  the  head  of  the  body. 

I  Cor.  6:  15,  19 — ''  Know  ye  not  that  your 
bodies  are  members  of  Christ?  ....  know  ye 
not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  from 
God?"  12:  12 — '*  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and 
hath  many  members,  and  all  the  members  of 
the  body,  being  many,  are  one  body ;  so  also  is 
Christ " — ^here  Christ  is  identified  with  the 
church  of  which  he  is  the  head ;  Eph.  i :  22,  23 
— "  he  put  all  things  in  subjection  under  his 
feet,  and  gave  him  to  be  head  over  all  things 
to  the  church,  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of 
him  that  filleth  all  in  all " — as  the  members  of 
the  human  body  are  united  to  the  head,  the 
source  of  their  activity  and  the  power  that 
controls  their  movements,  so  all  believers  are 
members  of  an  invisible  body  whose  head  is 
Christ.    Shall  we  tie  a  string  around  the  finger 

24 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


to  keep  for  it  its  own  blood?  No,  for  all  the 
blood  of  the  body  is  needed  to  nourish  one 
finger.  So  Christ  is  "  head  over  all  things  to 
[for  the  benefit  of]  the  church  "  (Tyler,  Theol. 
Greek  Poets,  preface,  ii).  "  The  church  is  the 
fulness  {nh^pwfia)  of  Christ;  as  it  was  not 
good  for  the  first  man,  Adam,  to  be  alone,  no 
more  was  it  good  for  the  second  man,  Christ  '^ 
(C.  H.  Macintosh).  Eph.  4:15,  16— "  grow 
up  in  all  things  into  him,  who  is  the  head,  even 
Christ;  from  whom  all  the  body  ....  maketh 
the  increase  of  the  body  unto  the  building  up 
of  itself  in  love  " ;  5 :  29,  30 — *'  for  no  man 
ever  hated  his  own  flesh;  but  nourisheth  and 
cherisheth  it,  even  as  Christ  also  the  church; 
because  we  are  members  of  his  body." 

{e)  From  the  union  of  the  race  with 
the  source  of  its  life  in  Adam. 

Rom.  5:12,  21 — "as  through  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  through  sin 
....  that,  as  sin  reigned  in  death,  even  so  might 
grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  " ;  i  Cor. 
15 :  22,  45,  49 — "  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so  also  in 


25 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive The  first 

man  Adam  became  a  living  soul.  The  last 
Adam  became  a  life-giving  Spirit  ....  as  we 
have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly  " — as  the 
whole  race  is  one  with  the  first  man  Adam,  in 
whom  it  fell  and  from  whom  it  has  derived  a 
corrupted  and  guilty  nature,  so  the  whole  race 
of  believers  constitutes  a  new  and  restored 
humanity,  whose  justified  and  purified  nature 
is  derived  from  Christ,  the  second  Adam.  Cf. 
Gen.  2 :  23 — "  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bones, 
and  flesh  of  my  flesh:  she  shall  be  called 
Woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  Man  " 
- — here  Macintosh  remarks  that,  as  man  is  first 
created  and  then  woman  is  viewed  in  and 
formed  out  of  him,  so  it  is  with  Christ  and  the 
church.  "  We  are  members  of  Christ's  body, 
because  in  Christ  we  have  the  principle  of  our 
origin ;  from  him  bur  life  arose,  just  as  the  life 
of  Eve  was  derived  from  Adam  ....  The 
church  is  Christ's  helpmeet,  formed  out  of 
Christ  in  his  deep  sleep  of  death,  as  Eve  out 
of  Adam  ....  The  church  will  be  nearest  to 
Christ,  as  Eve  was  to  Adam."  Because  Christ 
is  the  source  of  all  spiritual  life  for  his  people. 


26 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


he  is  called,  in  Is.  9:6,  "  Everlasting  Father," 
and  it  is  said,  in  Is.  53 :  10  that  "  he  shall  see 
his  seed  "  (see  page  680). 

B.     Direct  statements. 
(a)  The  believer  is   said  to  be   in 
Christ. 

Lest  we  should  regard  the  figures  mentioned 
above  as  merely  oriental  metaphors,  the  fact 
of  the  believer's  union  with  Christ  is  asserted 
in  the  most  direct  and  prosaic  manner.  John 
14 :  20 — "  ye  in  me  " ;  Rom.  6 :  1 1 — "  alive  unto 
God  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  8 :  i — *'  no  condemna- 
tion to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  2  Cor. 
5 :  17 — "  if  any  man  is  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new 
creature  " ;  Eph.  i :  4 — "  chose  us  in  him  be- 
fore the  foundation  of  the  world";  2:13 — 
"  now  in  Christ  Jesus  ye  that  once  were  far 
off  are  made  nigh  in  the  blood  of  Christ." 
Thus  the  believer  is  said  to  be  "  in  Christ,"  as 
the  element  or  atmosphere  which  surrounds 
him  with  its  perpetual  presence  and  which  con- 
stitutes his  vital  breath;  in  fact,  this  phrase 
"  in  Christ,"  always  meaning  "  in  union  with 
Christ,"  is  the  very  key  to  Paul's  epistles,  and 

27 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


to  the  whole  New  Testament.  The  fact  that 
the  believer  is  in  Christ  is  symbolized  in  bap- 
tism: we  are  ''baptized  into  Christ"  (Gal. 
3:27). 

(b)  Christ  is  said  to  be  in  the  be- 
liever. 

John  14:  20 — "  I  in  you  " ;  Rom.  8 :  9 — "  ye 
are  not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you.  But  if 
any  man  hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is 
none  of  his  " — ^that  this  Spirit  of  Christ  is  Christ 
himself,  is  shown  from  verse  10 — "  And  if 
Christ  is  in  you,  the  body  is  dead  because  of 
sin ;  but  the  spirit  is  life  because  of  righteous- 
ness " ;  Gal.  2 :  20 — "  I  have  been  crucified  with 
Christ;  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me  " — here  Christ  is  said  to  be 
in  the  believer,  and  so  to  live  his  life  within 
the  believer,  that  the  latter  can  point  to  this 
as  the  dominating  fact  of  his  experience, — it 
is  not  so  much  he  that  lives,  as  it  is  Christ  that 
lives  in  him.  The  fact  that  Christ  is  in  the 
believer  is  symbolized  in  the  Lord's  Supper: 
*'  The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  a  par- 

28 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


ticipation   in  the  body  of  Christ?"    (i    Cor. 
id: i6). 

(c)  The  Father  and  the  Son  dwell 
in  the  believer. 

John  14:23 — "If  a  man  love  me,  he  will 
keep  my  word:  and  my  Father  will  love  him, 
and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our 
abode  with  him  " ;  cf.  10—"  Believest  thou  not 
that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ? 
the  words  that  I  say  unto  you  I  speak  not 
from  myself:  but  the  Father  abiding  in  me 
doeth  his  works  " — ^the  Father  and  the  Son 
dwell  in  the  believer;  for  where  the  Son  is, 
there  always  the  Father  must  be  also.  If  the 
union  between  the  believer  and  Christ  in  John 
14:23  is  to  be  interpreted  as  one  of  mere 
moral  influence,  then  the  union  of  Christ  and 
the  Father  in  John  14:  10  must  also  be  inter- 
preted as  a  union  of  mere  moral  influence. 
Eph.  3 :  17 — "  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your 
hearts  through  faith  " ;  i  John  4: 16 — "  he  that 
abideth  in  love  abideth  in  God,  and  God  abideth 
in  him  " ;  2  John  9 — "  He  that  abideth  in  the 
teaching,  the  same  hath  both  the  Father  and 
the  Son." 

29 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


(d)  The  believer  has  life  by  parta- 
king of  Christ,  as  Christ  has  Ufe  by 
partaking  of  the  Father. 

John  6 :  53,  56,  57 — "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh 
of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye 
have  not  life  in  yourselves  ....  He  that  eateth 
my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  abideth  in  me, 
and  I  in  him.  As  the  living  Father  sent  me 
and  I  live  because  of  the  Father,  so  he  that 
eateth  me,  he  also  shall  live  because  of  me  " — > 
the  believer  has  life  by  partaking  of  Christ 
in  a  way  that  may  not  inappropriately  be  com- 
pared with  Christ's  having  hfe  by  partaking 
of  the  Father,  i  Cor.  10:16,  17 — "The  cup 
of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  a  com- 
munion of  the  blood  of  Christ?  The  bread 
which  we  break,  is  it  not  a  communion  of  the 
body  of  Christ?  " — ^here  it  is  intimated  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  sets  forth,  in  the  language  of 
symbol,  the  soul's  actual  participation  in  the 
life  of  Christ;  and  the  margin  properly  trans- 
lates the  word  xoiucovta,  not  "  communion,"  but 
"  participation."  Cf.  i  John  1 :  3 — "  our  fel- 
lowship {xoivo)via  )  is  with  the  Father,  and  with 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ."    Foster,  Christian  Life 

30 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


and  Theology,  216 — "  In  John  6,  the  phrases 
call  to  mind  the  ancient  form  of  sacrifice,  and 
the  participation  therein  by  the  offerer  at  the 
sacrificial  meal, — as  at  the  Passover." 

{e)  All  believers  are  one  in  Christ. 

John  17:  21-23 — "  that  they  may  all  be  one; 
even  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee, 
that  they  also  may  be  in  us:  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  thou  didst  send  me.  And  the 
glory  which  thou  hast  given  me  I  have  given 
unto  them;  that  they  may  be  one  even  as  we 
are  one;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they 
may  be  perfected  into  one  " — all  believers  are 
one  in  Christ,  to  whom  they  are  severally  and 
collectively  united,  as  Christ  himself  is  one  with 
God. 

(/)  The  believer  is  made  partaker  of 
the  divine  nature. 

2  Pet.  1 : 4 — "  that  through  these  [promises] 
ye  may  become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature  " 
— not  by  having  the  essence  of  your  humanity 
changed  into  the  essence  of  divinity,  but  by 

31 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


having  Christ  the  divine  Saviour  continually 
dwelling  within,  and  indissolubly  joined  to, 
your  human  souls. 

{g)  The  believer  is  made  one  spirit 
with  the  Lord. 

I  Cor.  6:17 — "he  that  is  joined  unto  the 
Lord  is  one  spirit  " — ^human  nature  is  so  inter- 
penetrated and  energized  by  the  divine,  that 
the  two  move  and  act  as  one :  cf.  19 — "  know 
ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  from 
God  ?  "  Rom.  8 :  26—"  the  Spirit  also  helpeth 
our  infirmity:  for  we  know  not  how  to  pray 
as  we  ought ;  but  the  Spirit  himself  maketh  in- 
tercession for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot 
be  uttered  " — the  Spirit  is  so  near  to  us,  and 
so  one  with  us,  that  our  prayer  is  called  his, 
or  rather,  his  prayer  becomes  ours.  Weiss, 
in  his  Life  of  Jesus,  says  that,  in  the  view  of 
Scripture,  human  greatness  does  not  consist 
in  a  man's  producing  everything  in  a  natural 
way  out  of  himself,  but  in  possessing  perfect 
receptivity  for  God's  greatest  gift.  Therefore 
God's  Son  receives  the  Spirit  without  meas- 

32 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


lire;  and  we  may  add  that  the  believer  in  like 
manner  receives  Christ.  John  i :  i6 — "  And  of 
his  fulness  have  all  we  received." 

2.    Nature  of  this  Union, 

We  have  here  to  do  not  only  with  a 
fact  of  life,  but  with  a  unique  relation 
between  the  finite  and  the  infinite.  Our 
descriptions  must  therefore  be  inade- 
quate. Yet  in  many  respects  we  know 
what  this  union  is  not;  in  certain  re- 
spects we  can  positively  characterize  it. 

It  should  not  surprise  us  if  we  find  it  far 
more  difficult  to  give  a  scientific  definition  of 
this  union,  than  to  determine  the  fact  of  its 
existence.  It  is  a  fact  of  life  with  which  we 
have  to  deal ;  and  the  secret  of  life,  even  in  its 
lowest  forms,  no  philosopher  has  ever  yet  dis- 
covered. The  tiniest  flower  witnesses  to  two 
facts:  first,  that  of  its  own  relative  independ- 
ence, as  an  independent  organism;  and  sec- 
ondly, that  of  its  ultimate  dependence  upon  a 
life  and  power  not  its  own.  So  every  human 
soul  has  its  proper  powers  of  intellect,  affec- 

c  33 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


tion,  and  will;  yet  it  lives,  moves,  and  has  its 
being  in  God  (Acts  17:28). 

Starting  out  from  the  truth  of  God's  omni- 
presence, it  might  seem  as  if  God's  indwell- 
ing in  the  granite  boulder  was  the  last  limit 
of  his  union  with  the  finite.  But  we  see  the 
divine  intelligence  and  goodness  drawing 
nearer  to  us,  by  successive  stages,  in  vegetable 
life,  in  the  animal  creation,  and  in  the  moral 
nature  of  man.  And  yet  there  are  two  stages 
beyond  all  these:  first,  in  Christ's  union  with 
the  believer;  and  secondly,  in  God's  union 
with  Christ.  If  this  union  of  God  with  the 
believer  be  only  one  of  several  approximations 
of  God  to  his  finite  creation,  the  fact  that  it  is, 
equally  with  the  others,  not  wholly  compre- 
hensible to  reason,  should  not  blind  us  either  to 
its  truth  or  to  its  importance. 

It  is  easier  to-day  than  at  any  other  pre- 
vious period  of  history  to  believe  in  the  union 
of  the  believer  with  Christ.  That  God  is  im- 
manent' in  the  universe,  and  that  there  is  a 
divine  element  in  man,  is  familiar  to  our  gen- 
eration. All  men  are  naturally  one  with  Christ, 
the  immanent  God,  and  this  natural  union  pre- 
pares the  way  for  that  spiritual  union  in  which 


34 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Christ  joins  himself  to  our  faith.  Campbell, 
The  Indwelling  Christ,  131 — "  In  the  im- 
manence of  Christ  in  nature  we  find  the  ground 
of  his  immanence  in  human  nature.  ...  A  man 
may  be  out  of  Christ,  but  Christ  is  never  out 
of  him.  Those  who  banish  him  he  does  not 
abandon."  John  Caird,  Fund.  Ideas  of  Chris- 
tianity, 2 :  233-256 — "  God  is  united  with  na- 
ture, in  the  atoms,  in  the  trees,  in  the  planets. 
Science  is  seeing  nature  full  of  the  life  of  God. 
God  is  united  to  man  in  body  and  soul.  The 
beating  of  his  heart  and  the  voice  of  conscience 
witness  to  God  within.  God  sleeps  in  the 
stone,  dreams  in  the  animal,  wakes  in  man." 

Shumaker,  God  and  Man,  113,  114 — "  God  is 
in  consciousness,  as  truly  as  he  is  in  nature,  in 
our  own  bodies,  in  our  subconscious  life.  Spir- 
itual realities  do  not  wave  banners  and  shout. 
The  divine  Presence  may  be  all  the  more  real 
and  rich,  the  further  it  is  removed  from  *  ob- 
servation'  (Luke  17:20).  God  was  not  in 
'  the  earthquake.'  The  field  of  consciousness 
may  be  the  peculiar  field  for  '  the  still,  small 
voice'  (i  K.  19:11,  12).  *  Surely,  Jehovah 
is  in  this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not '  (Gen. 
28:16)." 


35 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


A.     Negatively. — It  is  not : 

(a)  A  merely  natural  union,  like  that 

of  God  with  all  human  spirits, — as  held 

by  rationalists. 

In  our  physical  life  we  are  conscious  of  an- 
other life  within  us  which  is  not  subject  to 
our  wills :  the  heart  beats  involuntarily,  whether 
we  sleep  or  wake.  But  in  our  spiritual  life 
we  are  still  more  conscious  of  a  life  within 
our  life.  Even  the  heathen  said :  "  Est  Deus 
in  nobis;  agitante  calescimus  illo/*  and  the 
Egyptians  held  to  the  identification  of  the  de- 
parted with  Osiris  (Renouf,  Hibbert  Lectures, 
185).  But  Paul  urges  us  to  work  out  our 
salvation,  upon  the  very  ground  that  "  it  is 
God  that'  worketh  "  in  us,  "  both  to  will  and  to 
work,  for  his  good  pleasure"  (Phil.  2:12, 
13).  This  life  of  God  in  the  soul  is  the  life  of 
Christ. 

The  movement  of  the  electric  car  cannot  be 
explained  simply  from  the  working  of  its  own 
motor  apparatus.  The  electric  current  throb- 
bing through  the  wire,  and  the  dynamo  from 
which  that  energy  proceeds,  are  needed  to  ex- 
plain the  result.     In  like  manner  we  need  a 

36 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


spiritual  Christ  to  explain  the  spiritual  activity 
of  the  Christian.  A.  H.  Strong,  Sermon  be- 
fore the  Baptist  World  Congress  in  London, 
1905 — "  We  had  in  America  some  years  ago 
a  steam  engine  all  whose  working  parts  were 
made  of  glass.  The  steam  came  from  without, 
but,  being  hot  enough  to  move  machinery,  this 
steam  was  itself  invisible,  and  there  was  pre- 
sented the  curious  spectacle  of  an  engine,  trans- 
parent, moving,  and  doing  important  work, 
while  yet  no  cause  for  this  activity  was  per- 
ceptible. So  the  church,  humanity,  the  uni- 
verse, are  all  in  constant  and  progressive 
movement,  but  the  Christ  who  moves  them  is 
invisible.  Faith  comes  to  believe  where  it  can- 
not see.  It  joins  itself  to  this  invisible  Christ, 
and  knows  him  as  its  very  life." 

(h)  A  merely  moral  union,  or  union 
of  love  and  sympathy,  like  that  between 
teacher  and  scholar,  friend  and  friend, 
— as  held  by  Socinians  and  Arminians. 

There  is  a  moral  union  between  different 
souls :  I  Sam.  18 :  i^ — "  the  soul  of  Jonathan 
was  knit  with  the  soul  of  David,  and  Jonathan 

37 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


loved  him  as  his  own  soul  " — here  the  Vulgate 
has :  "  Aiiima  Jonathae  agglutinata  Davidi/' 
Aristotle  calls  friends  **  one  soul."  So  in  a 
higher  sense,  in  Acts  4 :  32,  the  early  believers 
are  said  to  have  been  "  of  one  heart  and  soul." 
But  in  John  17:  21,  26,  Christ's  union  with  his 
people  is  distinguished  from  any  mere  union 
of  love  and  sympathy:  "that  they  may  all  be 
one;  even  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
thee,  that'  they  also  may  be  in  us ; ...  .  that  the 
love  wherewith  thou  lovedst  me  may  be  in 
them,  and  I  in  them."  Jesus'  aim,  in  the  whole 
of  his  last  discourse,  is  to  show  that  no  mere 
union  of  love  and  sympathy  will  be  sufficient: 
"  apart  from  me,"  he  says,  "  ye  can  do  noth- 
ing "  (John  15 :  5).  That  his  disciples  may  be 
vitally  joined  to  himself,  is  therefore  the  sub- 
ject of  his  last  prayer. 

Dorner  says  well,  that  Arminianism  (and 
with  this  doctrine  Roman  Catholics  and  the 
advocates  of  New  School  views  substantially 
agree)  makes  man  a  mere  tangent  to  the  circle 
of  the  divine  nature.  It  has  no  idea  of  the 
interpenetration  of  the  one  by  the  other.  But 
the  Lutheran  Formula  of  Concord  says  much 
more  correctly :  "  Damnamus  sententiam  quod 


38 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


non  Deus   ipse,   sed   dona   Dei   duntaxat,   in 
credentibus  habitent." 

Ritschl  present's  to  us  a  historical  Christ, 
and  Pfleiderer  presents  to  us  an  ideal  Christ, 
but  neither  one  gives  us  the  living  Christ  who 
is  the  present  spiritual  life  of  the  believer. 
Wendt,  in  his  Teaching  of  Jesus,  2:  310,  comes 
equally  far  short  of  a  serious  interpretation  of 
our  Lord's  promise,  when  he  says :  *'  This 
union  to  his  person,  as  to  its  contents,  is  noth- 
ing else  than  adherence  to  the  message  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  brought  by  him."  It  is  not 
enough  for  me  to  be  merely  in  touch  with 
Christ.  He  must  come  to  be  ''  not  so  far  as 
even  to  be  near."  Tennyson,  The  Higher  Pan- 
theism :  **  Closer  is  he  than  breathing,  and 
nearer  than  hands  or  feet."  William  Watson, 
The  Unknown  God :  **  Yea,  in  my  flesh  his 
Spirit  doth  flow,  Too  near,  too  far,  for  me  to 
know." 

(c)  A  union  of  essence,  which  des- 
troys the  distinct  personality  and  sub- 
sistence of  either  Christ  or  the  human 
spirit, — as  held  by  many  of  the  mystics. 


39 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Many  of  the  mystics,  as  Schwenkfeld, 
Weigel,  Sebastian  Frank,  held  to  an  essential 
union  between  Christ  and  the  believer.  One 
of  Weigel's  followers,  therefore,  could  say  to 
another :  "  I  am  Christ  Jesus,  the  living  Word 
of  God;  I  have  redeemed  thee  by  my  sinless 
sufferings."  We  are  ever  to  remember  that 
the  indwelling  of  Christ  only  puts  the  believer 
more  completely  in  possession  of  himself,  and 
makes  him  more  conscious  of  his  own  person- 
ality and  power.  Union  with  Christ  must  be 
taken  in  connection  with  the  other  truth  of  the 
personality  and  activity  of  the  Christian ;  other- 
wise it  tends  to  pantheism.  Martineau,  Study, 
2 :  190 — "  In  nature  it  is  God's  immanent  life, 
in  morals  it'  is  God's  transcendent  life,  with 
which  we  commune.'* 

Angelus  Silesius,  a  German  philosophical 
poet  (1624-1677),  audaciously  wrote: ''  I  know 
God  cannot  live  an  instant  without  me;  He 
must  give  up  the  ghost,  if  I  should  cease  to 
be."  Lowde,  a  disciple  of  Malebranche,  used 
the  phrase  "  Godded  with  God,  and  Christed 
with  Christ,"  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  in  his 
Religious  Affections,  quotes  it  with  disappro- 
bation saying  that  "  the  saints  do  not  become 


40 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


actually  partakers  of  the  divine  essence,  as 
would  be  inferred  from  this  abominable  and 
blasphemous  language  of  heretics "  (Allen, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  224).  ''  Self  is  not  a  mode 
of  the  divine :  it  is  a  principle  of  isolation.  In 
order  to  religion,  I  must  have  a  will  to  sur- 
render ....  *  Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them 
thine.'  ....  Though  the  self  is,  in  knowledge, 
a  principle  of  unification ;  in  existence,  or  meta- 
physically, it  is  a  principle  of  isolation " 
(Seth). 

Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  30 — "  Some  of 
the  mystics  went  astray  by  teaching  a  real  sub- 
stitution of  the  divine  for  human  nature,  thus 
depersonalizing  man — a  fatal  mistake,  for 
without  human  personality  we  cannot  conceive 
of  divine  personality."  Lyman  Abbott :  "  In 
Christ,  God  and  man  are  united,  not  as  the 
river  is  united  with  the  sea,  losing  its  person- 
ality therein,  but  as  the  child  is  united  with 
the  father,  or  the  wife  with  the  husband,  whose 
personality  and  individuality  are  strengthened 
and  increased  by  the  union."  Here  Doctor 
Abbott's  view  comes  as  far  short  of  the  truth  as 
that  of  the  mystics  goes  beyond  the  truth.  As 
we  shall  see,  the  union  of  the  believer  with 


41 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Christ  is  a  vital  union,  surpassing  in  its  inti- 
macy any  union  of  souls  that  we  know.  The 
union  of  child  with  father,  or  of  wife  with 
husband,  is  only  a  pointer  which  hints  very 
imperfectly  at  the  interpenetrating  and  ener- 
gizing of  the  human  spirit  by  the  divine. 

{d)  A  union  mediated  and  condi- 
tioned by  participation  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  church, — as  held  by  Ro- 
manists, Lutherans,  and  High-Church 
Episcopalians. 

Perhaps  the  most  pernicious  misinterpre- 
tation of  the  nature  of  this  union  is  that  which 
conceives  of  it  as  a  physical  and  material  one, 
and  which  rears  upon  this  basis  the  fabric  of 
a  sacramental  and  external  Christianity.  It  is 
sufficient  here  to  say  that  this  union  cannot 
be  mediated  by  sacraments,  since  sacraments 
presuppose  it  as  already  existing ;  both  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  are  designed  only  for 
believers.  Only  faith  receives  and  retains 
Christ;  and  faith  is  the  act  of  the  soul  grasp- 
ing what  is  purely  invisible  and  supersensible : 

42 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


not  the  act  of  the  body,  submitting  to  Baptism 
or  partaking  of  the  Supper. 

William  Lincoln :  "  The  only  way  for  the 
believer,  if  he  wants  to  go  rightly,  is  to  remem- 
ber that  truth  is  always  two-sided.  If  there  is 
any  truth  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  specially 
pressed  upon  your  heart,  if  you  do  not  want  to 
push  it  to  the  extreme,  ask  what  is  the  coun- 
ter-truth, and  lean  a  little  of  your  weight  upon 
that;  otherwise,  if  you  bear  so  very  much  on 
one  side  of  the  truth,  there  is  a  danger  of 
pushing  it  into  a  heresy.  Heresy  means 
selected  truth;  it  does  not  mean  error;  heresy 
and  error  are  very  different  things.  Heresy  is 
truth,  but  truth  pushed  into  undue  importance, 
to  the  disparagement  of  the  truth  upon  the 
other  side."  Heresy  (aip^aii;)  =  an  act  of 
choice,  the  picking  and  choosing  of  a  part, 
instead  of  comprehensively  embracing  the 
whole  of  truth.  Sacramentarians  substitute 
the  symbol  for  the  thing  symbolized. 

B.     Positively. — It  is: 

(a)  An  organic  union, — in  which  we 
become  members  of  Christ  and  par- 
takers of  his  humanity. 

43 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Kant  defines  an  organism,  as  that  whose 
parts  are  reciprocally  means  and  end.  The 
body  is  an  organism;  since  the  limbs  exist  for 
the  heart,  and  the  heart  for  the  limbs.  So 
each  member  of  Christ's  body  lives  for  him 
who  is  the  head;  and  Christ  the  head  equally 
lives  for  his  members :  Eph.  5  :  29,  30 — "  no 
man  ever  hated  his  own  flesh;  but  nourisheth 
and  cherisheth  it,  even  ,as  Christ  also  the 
church ;  because  we  are  members  of  his  body." 
The  train-despatcher  is  a  symbol  of  the  con- 
centration of  energy;  the  switchmen  and  con- 
ductors who  receive  his  orders  are  symbols  of 
the  localization  of  force;  but  it  is  all  one  or- 
ganic system,  moved  by  one  superintending  in- 
telligence and  will. 

Johnston,  Philosophy  of  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
161 — "  The  union  of  the  individual  human 
soul  with  the  divine  Logos  is  something  mo're 
than  '  an  ethical  harmony  of  wills.'  The  Logos- 
light  which  flows  into  every  human  soul  bears 
the  same  relation  to  the  soul  as  the  ocean  bears 
to  its  countless  bays  and  inlets ;  if  the  channels 
are  kept  open  and  unobstructed,  the  Logos  will 
flood  the  soul,  just  as  the  ocean  sends  up  its 
tides  into  every  creek." 

44 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


(b)  A  vital  union, — in  which  Christ's 
life  becomes  the  dominating  principle 
within  us. 

This  union  is  a  vital  one,  in  distinction  from 
any  union  of  mere  juxtaposition  or  external 
influence.  Christ  does  not  work  upon  us  from 
without,  as  one  separated  from  us,  but  from 
within,  as  the  very  heart  from  which  the  life- 
blood  of  our  spirit  flows.  See  Gal.  2 :  20 — "  it 
is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me : 
and  that  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I 
live  in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of 
God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  up  for 
me  " ;  Col.  3 :  3,  4 — "  For  ye  died,  and  your 
life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  When  Christ, 
who  is  our  life,  shall  be  manifested,  then  shall 
ye  also  with  him  be  manifested  in  glory.'* 
Christ's  life  is  not  corrupted  by  the  corruption 
of  his  members,  any  more  than  the  ray  of  light 
is  defiled  by  the  filth  with  which  it  comes  in 
contact.  We  may  be  unconscious  of  this  union 
with  Christ,  as  we  often  are  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  yet  it  may  be  the  very  source  and 
condition  of  our  life.  Cf.  Is.  45 :  5 — "  I  sur- 
named  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me." 

45 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


(c)  A  spiritual  union, — that  is,  a 
union  whose  source  and  author  is  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

By  a  spiritual  union  we  mean  a  union  not 
of  body  but  of  spirit, — a  union,  therefore, 
which  only  the  Holy  Spirit  originates  and 
maintains.  Rom.  8 :  9,  10 — "  ye  are  not  in 
the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you.  But  if  any 
man  hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none 
of  his.  And  if  Christ  is  in  you,  the  body  is 
dead  because  af  sin;  but  the  spirit  is  life  be- 
cause of  righteousness."  The  indwelling  of 
Christ  involves  a  continual  exercise  of  efficient 
power.  In  Eph.  3  :  16,  17,  "  strengthened  with 
power  through  his  Spirit  in  the  inward  man  " 
is  immediately  followed  by  "  that  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  through  faith ;  .  .  .  .  filled 
unto  all  the  fulness  of  God." 

(d)  An  indissoluble  union, — that  is,  a 
union  which,  consistently  with  Christ's 
promise  and  grace,  can  never  be  dis- 
solved. 

46 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Matt.  28:20 — "  lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  ";  John  10:  28 
— "they  shall  never  perish,  and  no  one  shall 
snatch  them  out  of  my  hand  " ;  Rom.  8 :  35,  39 
— "  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ?  ....  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any 
other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord";  i  Thess.  4:14,  17 — ^"  them  also 
that  are  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring 

with  him then  we  that  are  alive,  that  are 

left,  shall  together  with  them  be  caught  up  in 
the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air:  and  so 
shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord." 

Christ's  omnipresence  makes  it  possible  for 
him  to  be  united  to,  and  to  be  present  in,  each 
believer,  as  perfectly  and  fully  as  if  that  be- 
liever were  the  only  one  to  receive  Christ's 
fulness.  As  Christ's  omnipresence  makes  the 
whole  Christ  present  in  every  place,  each  be- 
liever has  the  whole  Christ  witli  him,  as  his 
source  of  strength,  purity,  life;  so  that  each 
may  say:  Christ  gives  all  his  time  and  wis- 
dom and  care  to  me.  Such  a  union  as  this 
lacks  every  element  of  instability.  Once 
formed,  the  union  is  indissoluble.    Many  of  the 


47 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


ties  of  earth  are  rudely  broken, — ^not  so  with 
our  union  with  Christ,^ — that  endures  forever. 
Since  there  is  now  an  unchangeable  and  di- 
vine element  in  us,  our  salvation  depends  no 
longer  upon  our  unstable  wills,  but  upon 
Christ's  purpose  and  power.  By  temporary 
declension  from  duty,  or  by  our  causeless  un- 
belief, we  may  banish  Christ  to  the  barest  and 
most'  remote  room  of  the  soul's  house ;  but  he 
does  not  suffer  us  wholly  to  exclude  him ;  and 
when  we  are  willing  to  unbar  the  doors,  he  is 
still  there,  ready  to  fill  the  whole  mansion  with 
his  light  and  love. 

(e)  An  inscrutable  union, — mystical, 
however,  only  in  the  sense  of  surpassing 
in  its  intimacy  and  value  any  other 
union  of  souls  which  we  know. 

This  union  is  inscrutable,  indeed;  but  it  is 
not  mystical,  in  the  sense  of  being  unintel- 
ligible to  the  Christian  or  beyond  the  reach 
of  his  experience.  If  we  call  it  mystical  at 
all,  it  should  be  only  because,  in  the  intimacy 
of  its  communion  and  in  the  transforming 
power  of  its  influence,  it  surpasses  any  other 

48 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


union  of  souls  that  we  know,  and  so  cannot 
be  fully  described  or  understood  by  earthly 
analogies.  Eph.  5:32 — "This  mystery  is 
great:  but  I  speak  in  regard  to  Christ  and 
the  church  " ;  Col.  i :  27 — **  the  riches  of  the 
glory  of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles, 
which  is  Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory." 

See  Diman,  Theistic  Argument,  380— "  As 
physical  science  has  brought  us  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  back  of  all  the  phenomena  of  the 
material  universe  there  lies  an  invisible  uni- 
verse of  forces,  and  that  these  forces  may  ulti- 
mately be  reduced  to  one  all-pervading  force 
in  which  the  unity  of  the  physical  universe 
consists;  and  as  philosophy  has  advanced  the 
rational  conjecture  that  this  ultimate  all-per- 
vading force  is  simply  will- force ;  so  the  great 
Teacher  holds  up  to  us  the  spiritual  universe 
as  pervaded  by  one  omnipotent  life — a  life 
which  was  revealed  in  him  as  its  highest  mani- 
festation, but  which  is  shared  by  all  who  by 
faith  become  partakers  of  his  nature.  He  was 
Son  of  God:  they  too  had  power  to  become 
sons  of  God.  The  incarnation  is  wholly  within 
the  natural  course  and  tendency  of  things.  It 
was  prepared  for,  it  came,  in  the  fulness  of 


49 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


times.  Christ's  life  is  not  something  sporadic 
and  individual,  having  its  source  in  the  per- 
sonal conviction  of  each  disciple;  it  implies  a 
real  connection  with  Christ,  the  head.  Be- 
hind all  nature  there  is  one  force;  behind  all 
varieties  of  Christian  life  and  character  there 
is  one  spiritual  power.  All  nature  is  not  inert 
matter, — it  is  pervaded  by  a  living  presence. 
So  all  the  body  of  believers  live  by  virtue  of 
the  all-working  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  Holy 
Ghost."  An  epitaph  at  Silton,  in  Dorsetshire, 
reads : 

Here  lies  a  piece  of  Christ — a  star  in  dust, 

A  vein  of  gold,  a  china  dish  that  must 

Be  used  in  heaven  when  God  shall  feed  the  just. 

A.  H.  Strong,  in  Examiner,  1880:  "  Such  is 
the  nature  of  union  with  Christ, — such  I  mean, 
is  the  nature  of  every  believer's  union  with 
Christ.  For  whether  he  knows  it  or  not,  every 
Christian  has  entered  into  just  such  a  partner- 
ship as  this.  It  is  this  and  this  only  which 
constitutes  him  a  Christian,  and  which  makes 
possible  a  Christian  church.  We  may,  indeed, 
be  thus  united  to  Christ,  without  being  fully 
conscious  of  the  real  nature  of  our  relation  to 


50 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


him.  We  may  actually  possess  the  kernel, 
while  as  yet  we  have  regard  only  to  the  shell ; 
we  may  seem  to  ourselves  to  be  united  to 
Christ  only  by  an  external  bond,  while  after 
all  it  is  an  inward  and  spiritual  bond  that 
makes  us  his,  God  often  reveals  to  the  Chris- 
tian the  mystery  of  the  gospel,  which  is  Christ 
in  him  the  hope  of  glory,  at  the  very  time  that 
he  is  seeking  only  some  nearer  access  to  a  Re- 
deemer outside  of  him.  Trying  to  find  a  union 
of  cooperation  or  of  sympathy,  he  is  amazed 
to  learn  that  there  is  already  established  a 
union  with  Christ  more  glorious  and  blessed, 
namely,  a  union  of  life ;  and  so,  like  the  miners 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  while  he  is  looking 
only  for  silver,  he  finds  gold.  Christ  and  the 
believer  have  the  same  life.  They  are  not 
separate  persons  linked  together  by  some  tem- 
porary bond  of  friendship, — they  are  united 
by  a  tie  as  close  and  indissoluble  as  if  the  same 
blood  ran  in  their  veins.  Yet  the  Christian 
may  never  have  suspected  how  intimate  a 
union  he  has  with  his  Saviour;  and  the  first 
understanding  of  this  truth  may  be  the  gate- 
way through  which  he  passes  into  a  holier  and 
happier  stage  of  the  Christian  life." 


51 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


So  the  Way  leads,  through  the  Truth,  to  the 
Life  (John  14:6).  Apprehension  of  an  ex- 
ternal Saviour  prepares  for  the  reception  and 
experience  of  the  internal  Saviour.  Christ  is 
first  the  Door  of  the  sheep,  but  in  him,  after 
they  have  once  entered  in,  they  find  pasture 
(John  10:7-9).  On  the  nature  of  this  union, 
see  H.  B.  Smith,  System  of  Christian  The- 
ology, 531-539;  Baird,  Elohim  Revealed,  601; 
Wilberforce,  Incarnation,  208-272,  and  New- 
Birth  of  Man's  Nature,  1-30.  Per  contra,  see 
Park,  Discourses,  1 17-136. 

3.  Consequences  of  this  Union  as 
respects  the  Believer. 

We  have  seen  that  Christ's  union 
with  humanity,  at  the  incarnation,  in- 
volved him  in  all  the  legal  liabilities  of 
the  race  to  which  he  united  himself,  and 
enabled  him  so  to  assume  the  penalty  of 
its  sin  as  to  make  for  all  men  a  full 
satisfaction  to  the  divine  justice,  and  to 
remove  all  external  obstacles  to  man's 
return  to  God.     An  internal  obstacle, 

52 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


however,  still  remains — the  evil  affec- 
tions and  will,  and  the  consequent  guilt, 
of  the  individual  soul.  This  last  ob- 
stacle also  Christ  removes,  in  the  case 
of  all  his  people,  by  uniting  himself  to 
them  in  a  closer  and  more  perfect  man- 
ner than  that  in  which  he  is  united  to 
humanity  at  large.  As  Christ's  union 
with  the  race  secures  the  objective 
reconciliation  of  the  race  to  God,  so 
Christ's  union  with  believers  secures 
the  subjective  reconciliation  of  believers 
to  God. 

Forsyth,  Work  of  Christ,  76,  yy — Recon- 
ciliation is  I.  between  two  parties  who  have 
fallen  out ;  2.  it  affects  and  alters  both  parties ; 

3.  it  rests  upon  atonement  and  redemption; 

4.  it  is  a  reconciliation  of  the  world  as  a  cosmic 
whole;  5.  it  is  a  reconciliation  final  in  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  Cross.  87 — The  first  bearing 
of  Christ's  work  was  upon  the  race  as  a  total- 
ity. It  changed  man's  corporate  relation  to 
God.     Then,  when  it  is  taken  home  individ- 

53 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


ually,  it  changes  our  present  attitude.  Forsyth, 
Cruciality  of  the  Cross,  29 — ''  Reconciliation 
means  changing  a  whole  race's  relation  to 
God.  For  good  and  all,  that  could  only  be 
done  from  God's  side ;  and  it  was  done  in  the 
Cross.     We  have  to  be   redeemed  into  that 

reconciliation,  and  redeemed  as  a  race 

All  we  may  do  to  reconcile  men  to  God  is  but 
the  following  up  of  a  great  and  final  deed  of 
God — the  Cross." 

In  Baird,  Elohim  Revealed,  607-610,  in 
Owen,  on  Justification,  chap.  8,  in  Boston, 
Covenant  of  Grace,  chap.  2,  and  in  Dale, 
Atonement,  265-440,  the  union  of  the  believer 
with  Christ  is  made  to  explain  the  bearing  of 
our  sins  by  Christ.  As  we  have  seen  in  our 
discussion  of  the  Atonement,  however  (page 
759),  this  explains  the  cause  by  the  effect, 
and  implies  that  Christ  died  only  for  the  elect 
(see  review  of  Dale,  in  Brit.  Quar.  Rev.,  Apr. 
1876:221-225).  It  is  not  the  union  of  Christ 
with  the  believer,  but  the  union  of  Christ  with 
humanity  at  large,  that  explains  his  taking 
upon  him  human  guilt  and  penalty. 

Amnesty  offered  to  a  rebellious  city  may  be 
complete,  yet  it  may  avail  only  for  those  who 


54 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


surrender.  Pardon  secured  from  a  Governor, 
upon  the  ground  of  the  services  of  an  Advo- 
cate, may  be  effectual  only  v^hen  the  convict 
accepts  it, — there  is  no  hope  for  him  when 
he  tears  up  the  pardon.  Dr.  H.  E.  Robins: 
"  The  judicial  declaration  of  acquittal  on  the 
ground  of  the  death  of  Christ,  which  comes  to 
all  men  (Rom.  5:18),  and  into  the  benefits 
of  which  they  are  introduced  by  natural  birth, 
is  inchoate  justification,  and  will  become  per- 
fected justification  through  the  new  birth  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  unless  the  working  of  this  divine 
agent  is  resisted  by  the  personal  moral  action  of 
those  who  are  lost."  What  Doctor  Robins 
calls  "  inchoate  justification  "  we  prefer  to  call 
"  ideal  justification,"  or  "  attainable  justifica- 
tion." Humanity  in  Christ  is  justified,  and 
every  member  of  the  race  who  joins  himself 
to  Christ  by  faith  participates  in  Christ's  justi- 
fication. H.  E.  Dudley:  "Adam's  sin  holds  us 
all  down  just  as  gravity  holds  all,  while  Christ's 
righteousness,  though  secured  for  all  and  ac- 
cessible to  all,  involves  an  effort  of  will  in 
climbing  and  grasping  which  not  all  will 
make."  Justification  in  Christ  is  the  birth- 
right of  humanity ;  but,  in  order  to  possess  and 


55 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


enjoy  it,  each  of  us  must  claim  and  appropriate 
it  by  faith. 

R.  W.  Dale,  Fellowship  with  Christ,  7 — 
''  When  we  were  created  in  Christ,  the  for- 
tunes of  the  human  race  for  good  or  evil  be- 
came his.  The  Incarnation  revealed  and  ful- 
filled the  relations  which  already  existed  be- 
tween the  Son  of  God  and  mankind.  From 
the  beginning  Christ  had  entered  into  fellow- 
ship with  us.  When  we  sinned,  he  remained 
in  fellowship  with  us  still.  Our  miseries " 
[we  would  add:  our  guilt]  "were  his,  by  his 
own  choice.  .  .  .  His  fellowship  with  us  is  the 
foundation  of  our  fellowship  with  him.  .  .  . 
When  I  have  discovered  that  by  the  very  con- 
stitution of  my  nature  I  am  to  achieve  per- 
fection in  the  power  of  the  life  of  Another — 
who  is  yet  not  Another,  but  the  very  ground  of 
my  being — it  ceases  to  be  incredible  to  me  that 
Another — who  is  yet  not  Another — should  be 
the  Atonement  for  my  sin,  and  that  his  rela- 
tion to  God  should  determine  mine." 

Mabie,  The  Reason  of  the  Cross,  142^ — "  On 
the  ground  of  what  God  in  Christ  has  effected 
through  his  age-long  sacrificial  work,  mankind 
has  been  adjudged  to  a  new  redeemed  moral 


56 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


status.  This  world  is  a  potentially  redeemed 
and  forgiven  world,  though  largely  unaware 
of  it  and  deeply  indifferent  to  it ;  and  the  final 
character  of  men  will  be  determined,  not  by 
any  standard  of  legal  merit,  but  by  one's  peni- 
tent and  believing  attitude  to  the  Christ — '  the 
Light  which  lighteth. every  man  coming  into 
the  world  '  (John  i :  9) — in  whatever  form 
that  Light  may  have  appeared." 

A  tract  entitled  "  The  Seven  Togethers " 
sums  up  the  Scripture  testimony  with  regard 
to  the  Consequences  Of  the  believer's  Union 
with  Christ:  i.  Crucified  together  with  Christ 
— Gal.  2 :  20 — (TDveazaupmiJLCu.  2.  Died  together 
with  Christ — Col.  2 :  20 — dneMvere.  3.  Buried 
together  with  Christ — ^Rom.  6 :  4 — (Twerdipr^fjieu. 
4.  Quickened  together  with  Christ. — Eph.  2 :  5 
— (Tuve^cooTToiT^aep.  5.  Raised  together  with 
Christ' — Col.  3  :  i* — aovTjjepd^TjTe.  6.  Sufferers 
together  with  Christ — ^Rom.  8:17 — aofmda- 
yofizv,  7.  Glorified  together  with  Christ — 
Rom.  8:17 — auvdo^aa&ajpev.  Union  with 
Christ  results  in  common  sonship,  relation  to 
God,  character,  influence,  and  destiny. 

Imperfect  apprehension  of  the  believer's 
union  with  Christ  works  to  the  great  injury  of 


57 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Christian  doctrine.  An  experience  of  union 
with  Christ  first  enables  us  to  understand  the 
death  of  sin  and  separation  from  God  which 
has  befallen  the  race  sprung  from  the  first 
Adam.  The  life  and  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  shows  us  by  contrast 
how  far  astray  we  had.  gone.  The  vital  and 
organic  unity  of  the  new  race  sprung  from  the 
second  Adam  reveals  the  depravity  and  disin- 
tegration which  we  had  inherited  from  our 
first  father.  We  see  that  as  there  is  one  source 
of  spiritual  life  in  Christ,  so  there  was  one 
source  of  corrupt  life  in  Adam;  and  th^t  as 
we  are  justified  by  reason  of  our  oneness  with 
the  justified  Christ,  so  we  are  condemned  by 
reason  of  our  oneness  with  the  condemned 
Adam. 

A.  H.  Strong,  Christ  in  Creation,  175 — "  If 
it  is  consistent  with  evolution  that  the  physical 
and  natural  life  of  the  race  should  be  derived 
from  a  single  source,  then  it  is  equally  con- 
sistent with  evolution  that  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual life  of  the  race  should  be  derived  from 
a  single  source.  Scripture  is  stating  only  scien- 
tific fact  when  it  sets  the  second  Adam,  the 
head  of  redeemed  humanity,  over  against  the 


58 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


first  Adam,  the  head  of  fallen  humanity.  We 
are  told  that  evolution  should  give  us  many 
Christs.  We  reply  that  evolution  has  not 
given  us  many  Adams.  Evolution,  as  it  as- 
signs to  the  natural  head  of  the  race  a  supreme 
and  unique  position,  must  be  consistent  with 
itself,  and  must  assign  a  supreme  and  unique 
position  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  spiritual  head  of 
the  race.  As  there  was  but  one  Adam  from 
whom  all  the  natural  life  of  the  race  was  de- 
rived, so  there  can  be  but  one  Christ  from 
whom  all  the  spiritual  life  of  the  race  is  de- 
rived.'' 

The  consequences  of  union  with 
Christ  may  be  summarily  stated  as 
follows : 

(a)  Union  with  Christ  involves  a 
change  in  the  dominant  affection  of  the 
soul.  Christ's  entrance  into  the  soul 
makes  it  a  new  creature,  in  the  sense 
that  the  ruling  disposition,  which  before 
was  sinful,  now  becomes  holy.  This 
change  we  call  Regeneration. 

59 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


Rom.  8:2 — "For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus  made  me  free  from  the  law 
of  sin  and  of  death";  2  Cor.  5:  17 — "  if  any 
man  is  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature  "  (marg. 
— "  there  is  a  new  creation  ")  ;  Gal.  1:15,  16 
— "  it  was  the  good  pleasure  of  God  ....  to 
reveal  his  Son  in  me  " ;  Eph.  2 :  10 — "  For 
we  are  his  workmanship,  created  in  Christ 
Jesus  for  good  works."  As  we  derive  our  old 
nature  from  the  first  man  Adam,  by  birth, 
so  we  derive  a  new  nature  from  the  second 
man  Christ,  by  the  new  birth.  Union  with 
Christ  is  the  true  "  transfusion  of  blood." 
"  The  death-struck  sinner,  like  the  wan, 
anaemic,  dying  invalid,  is  saved  by  having 
poured  into  his  veins,  the  healthier  blood  of 
Christ"  (Drummond,  Nat.  Law  in  the  Spir. 
World).  God  regenerates  the  soul  by  uniting 
it  to  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  Johnston  Harvester  Works  at  Bata- 
via,  when  they  paint  their  machinery,  they  do 
it  by  immersing  part  after  part  in  a  great  tank 
of  paint, — so  the  painting  is  instantaneous 
and  complete.  Our  baptism  into  Christ  is  the 
outward  picture  of  an  inward  immersion  of 
the  soul  not  only  into  his  love  and   fellow- 


60 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


ship,  but  into  his  very  life,  so  that  in  him  we 
become  new  creatures  (2  Cor.  5:17).  As 
Miss  Sullivan  surrounded  Helen  Keller  with 
the  influence  of  her  strong  personality,  by  in- 
telligence and  sympathy  and  determination  stri- 
ving to  awaken  the  blind  and  dumb  soul  and 
give  it  light  and  love,  so  Jesus  envelops  us. 
But  his  Spirit  is  more  encompassing  and  more 
penetrating  than  any  human  influence  how- 
ever powerful,  because  his  life  is  the  very 
ground  and  principle  of  our  being. 
Tennyson  has  well  written : 

Oh,  for  a  man  to  arise  in  me. 

That  the  man  that  I  am  may  cease  to  be! 

And  Emerson  has  the  same  thought: 

Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free; 
He  builded  better  than  he  knew. 

Religion  is  not  the  adding  of  a  new  department 
of  activity  as  an  adjunct  to  our  own  life,  or 
the  grafting  of  a  new  method  of  manifesta- 
tion upon  the  old.  It  is  rather  the  grafting  of 
our  souls  into  Christ,  so  that  his  life  dominates 
and  manifests  itself  in  all  our  activities.    The 


61 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


magnet,  which  left  to  itself  can  lift  only  a 
three-pound  weight,  will  lift  three  hundred 
when  it  is  attached  to  the  electric  dynamo. 
Expositor's  Greek  Testament  on  i  Cor.  15: 
45,  46 — "  The  action  of  Jesus  in  '  breathing  ' 
upon  his  disciples  while  he  said,  '  Receive  the 
Holy  Spirit'  (John  20:22,  sq.)  symbolized 
the  vitalizing  relationship  which  at  this  epoch 
he  assumed  towards  mankind;  this  act  raised 
to  a  higher  potency  the  original  '  breathing  '  of 
God  by  which  '  man  became  a  living  soul ' 
(Gen.  2:7)." 

(b)  Union  with  Christ  involves  a 
new  exercise  of  the  soul's  powers  in 
repentance  and  faith;  faith,  indeed,  is 
the  act  of  the  soul  by  which,  under  the 
operation  of  God,  Christ  is  received. 
This  new  exercise  of  the  souFs  powers 
we  call  Conversion  (Repentance  and 
Faith).  It  is  the  obverse  or  human  side 
of  Regeneration. 

Eph.  3 :  17 — "  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your 
hearts  through   faith";  2  Tim.   3:15 — "the 

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UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


sacred  writings  which  are  able  to  make  thee 
wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Faith  is  the  soul's  laying  hold 
of  Christ  as  its  only  source  of  life,  pardon, 
and  salvation.  And  so  we  see  what  true  re- 
ligion is.  It  is  not  a  moral  life;  it  is  not  a 
determination  to  be  religious;  it  is  not  faith, 
if  by  faith  we  mean  an  external  trust  that 
somehow  Christ  will  save  us ;  it  is  nothing  less 
than  the  life  of  the  soul  in  God,  through  Christ 
his  Son.  To  Christ,  then,  we  are  to  look  for 
the  origin,  continuance,  and  increase  of  our 
faith  (Luke  17:5 — "said  unto  the  Lord,  In- 
crease our  faith").  Our  faith  is  but  a  part 
of  "  his  fulness  "  of  which  "  we  all  received, 
and  grace  for  grace  "  (John  i :  16). 

A.  H.  Strong,  Sermon  before  the  Baptist 
World  Congress,  London,  1905 — "  Christianity 
is  summed  up  in  the  two  facts :  Christ  for  us, 
and  Christ  in  us — Christ  for  us  upon  the 
Cross,  revealing  the  eternal  opposition  of  holi- 
ness to  sin,  and  yet,  through  God's  eternal 
suffering  for  sin  making  objective  atonement 
for  us;  and  Christ  in  us  by  his  Spirit,  renew- 
ing in  us  the  lost  image  of  God,  and  abiding  in 
us  as  the  all-sufficient  source  of  purity  and 


63 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


power.  Here  are  the  two  foci  of  the  Chris- 
tian ellipse:  Christ  for  us,  who  redeemed  us 
from  the  curse  of  the  laiw  by  being  made  a 
curse  for  us,  and  Christ  in  us,  the  hope  of 
glory,  whom  the  apostle  calls  the  mystery  of 
the  gospel. 

"  We  need  Christ  in  us  as  well  as  Christ 
for  us.  How  shall  I,  how  shall  society,  find 
healing  and  purification  within?  Let  me  an- 
swer by  reminding  you  of  what  they  did  at 
Chicago.  In  all  the  world  there  was  no  river 
more  stagnant  and  fetid  than  was  Chicago 
River.  Its  sluggish  stream  received  the  sweep- 
ings of  the  watercraft  and  the  offal  of  the  city, 
and  there  was  no  current  to  carry  the  detritus 
away.  There  it  settled,  and  bred  miasma  and 
fever.  At  last  it  was  suggested  that,  by  cutting 
through  the  low  ridge  between  the  city  and 
the  Desplaines  River,  the  current  could  be  set 
running  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  drain- 
age could  be  secured  into  the  Illinois  River 
and  the  great  Mississippi.  At  a  cost  of  fifteen 
millions  of  dollars  the  cut  was  made,  and  now 
all  the  water  of  Lake  Michigan  can  be  relied 
upon  to  cleanse  that  turbid  stream.  What 
Chicago  River  could  never  do  for  itself,  the 


64 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


great  lake  now  does  for  it.  So  no  human  soul 
can  purge  itself  of  its  sin;  and  what  the  indi- 
vidual cannot  do,  humanity  at  large  is  power- 
less to  accomplish.  Sin  has  dominion  over  us, 
and  we  are  foul  to  the  very  depths  of  our  be- 
ing, until  with  the  help  of  God  we  break 
through  the  barrier  of  our  self-will,  and  let 
the  floods  of  Christ's  purifying  life  flow  into 
us.  Then,  in  an  hour,  more  is  done  to  renew, 
than  all  our  efforts  for  years  had  effected. 
Thus  humanity  is  saved,  individual  by  indi- 
vidual, not  by  philosophy,  or  philanthropy, 
or  self-development,  or  self-reformation,  but 
simply  by  joining  itself  to  Jesus  Christ  and 
by  being  filled  in  Him  with  all  the  fulness  of 
God." 

(c)  Union  with  Christ  gives  to  the 
believer  the  legal  standing  and  rights 
of  Christ.  As  Christ's  union  with  the 
race  involves  atonement,  so  the  believ- 
er's union  with  Christ  involves  Justifi- 
cation, The  believer  is  entitled  to  take 
for  his  own  all  that  Christ  is,  and  all 
that  Christ  has  done:  and  this  because 


65 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


he  has  within  him  that  new  Hfe  of 
humanity  which  suffered  in  Christ's 
death  and  rose  from  the  grave  in 
Christ's  resurrection, — in  other  words, 
because  he  is  virtually  one  person  with 
the  Redeemer.  In  Christ  the  believer 
is  prophet,  priest,  and  king. 

Acts  13  :  39 — "  by  him  [lit. :  '  in  him  ' — in 
union  with  him]  every  one  that  believeth  is 
justified";  Rom.  6:7,  8—"  he  that  hath  died 
is  justified  from  sin  .  .  .  we  died  with  Christ " ; 
7 :  4 — "  dead  to  the  law  through  the  body  of 
Christ " ;  8 :  i — "  no  condemnation  to  them  that 
are  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  17 — "  heirs  of  God,  and 
joint-heirs  with  Christ";  i  Cor.  1:30 — "But 
of  him  ye  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  was  made 
unto  us  wisdom  from  God,  and  righteousness 
[justification]'';  3:21,  23 — "all  things  are 
yours  .  .  .  and  ye  are  Christ's  " ;  6:1 1 — "  ye 
were  justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  the  Spirit  of  our  God  " ;  2  Cor. 
5 :  14 — "  we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all, 
therefore  all  died  " ;  21 — "  Him  who  knew  no 
sin  he  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf;  that  we 

66 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


might  become  the  righteousness  [justification] 
of  God  in  him  '* — God's  justified  persons,  in 
union  with  Christ. 

Gal.  2 :  20 — "  I  have  been  crucified  with 
Christ;  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me  " ;  Eph.  i :  4,  6 — "  chose  us 
in  him  ...  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his 
grace,  which  he  freely  bestowed  on  us  in  the 
Beloved  " ;  2 :  5,  6 — "  even  when  we  were  dead 
through  our  trespass,  made  us  alive  together 
with  Christ  .  .  .  made  us  to  sit  with  him  in  the 
heavenly  places,  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  Phil.  3 : 8, 
9 — "  that  I  may  gain  Christ  and  be  found  in 
him,  not  having  a  righteousness  of  mine  own, 
even  that  which  is  of  the  law,  but  that  which  is 
through  faith  in  Christ,  the  righteousness 
which  is  from  God  by  faith  " ;  2  Tim.  2 : 1 1 — 
"Faithful  is  the  saying:  For  if  we  died  with 
him,  we  shall  also  live  with  him."  Prophet: 
Luke  12 :  12 — "  the  tloly  Spirit  shall  teach  you 
in  that  very  hour  what  ye  ought  to  say " ; 
I  John  2 :  20 — "  ye  have  an  anointing  from 
the  Holy  One,  and  ye  know  all  things."  Priest : 
I  Pet.  2 :  5 — "  a  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up 
spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God  through 
Jesus   Christ  " ;   Rev.   20 :  6 — "  they   shall   be 


67 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


priests  of  God  and  of  Christ";  i  Pet.  2:9 — 
"  a  royal  priesthood."  King :  Rev.  3 :  21 — "  He 
that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to  him  to  sit  down 
with  me  in  my  throne  " ;  5  :  10 — "  madest  them 
to  be  unto  our  God  a  kingdom  and  priests." 
The  connection  of  justification  and  union  with 
Christ  delivers  the  former  from  the  charge  of 
being  a  mechanical  and  arbitrary  procedure. 
As  Jonathan  Edwards  has  said :  "  The  justi- 
fication of  the  believer  is  no  other  than  his 
being  admitted  to  communion  in,  or  participa- 
tion of,  this  head  and  surety  of  all  believers." 

{d)  Union  with  Christ  secures  to  the 
behever  the  continuously  transforming, 
assimilating  power  of  Christ's  life, — 
first,  for  the  soul;  secondly,  for  the 
body, — consecrating  it  in  the  present, 
and  in  the  future  raising  it  up  in  the 
likeness  of  Christ's  glorified  body.  This 
continuous  influence,  so  far  as  it  is  ex- 
erted in  the  present  life,  we  call  Sancti- 
fication,  the  human  side  or  aspect  of 
which  is  Perseverance. 

68 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


For  the  soul:  John  i :  i6 — **  of  his  fulness 
we  all  received  and  grace  for  grace  " — succes- 
sive and  increasing  measures  of  grace,  corre- 
sponding to  the  soul's  successive  and  increasing 
needs;  Rom.  8:  lo — **  if  Christ  is  in  you,  the 
body  is  dead  because  of  sin;  but  the  spirit  is 
life  because  of  righteousness";  i  Cor.  15:45 
— **  The  last  Adam  became  a  life-giving 
spirit  " ;  Phil.  2 :  5 — "  Have  this  mind  in  you, 
which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  i  John  3 : 2 
' — "  if  he  shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like 
him."  *'  Can  Christ  let  the  believer  fall  out  of 
his  hands  ?    No,  for  the  believer  is  his  hands." 

For  the  body:  i  Cor.  6: 17-20 — "he  that  is 
joined  unto  the  Lord  is  one  spirit ....  know  ye 
not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  is  in  you  ....  glorify  God  there- 
fore in  your  body  " ;  i  Thess.  5  :  23 — "  And 
the  God  of  peace  himself  sanctify  you  wholly; 
and  may  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  pre- 
served entire,  without  blame  at  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ " ;  Rom.  8 : 1 1 — "  shall 
give  life  also  to  your  mortal  bodies  through 
his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you  " ;  i  Cor.  15  :  49 
— "  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy 
[man],  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the 


69 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


heavenly  [man]  ";  Phil.  3:20,  21 — "For  our 
citizenship  is  in  heaven ;  from  whence  also  we 
wait  for  a  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  who 
shall  fashion  anew  the  body  of  our  humiliation, 
that  it  may  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  his 
glory,  according  to  the  working  whereby  he  is 
able  even  to  subject  all  things  unto  himself." 

Is  there  a  physical  miracle  wrought  for  the 
drunkard  in  his  regeneration?  Mr.  Moody 
said,  Yes ;  Mr.  Gough  said,  No.  We  prefer  to 
say  that  the  change  is  a  spiritual  one ;  but  that 
the  "  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection  "  in- 
directly affects  the  body,  so  that  old  appetites 
sometimes  disappear  in  a  moment;  and  that 
often,  in  the  course  of  years,  great  changes  take 
place  even  in  the  believer's  body.  Tennyson, 
Idylls :  "  Have  ye  looked  at  Edryn  ?  Have  ye 
seen  how  nobly  changed  ?  This  work  of  his  is 
great  and  wonderful :  His  very  face  with  change 
of  heart  is  changed."  "  Christ  in  the  soul 
fashions  the  germinal  man  into  his  own  like- 
ness,'— this  is  the  embryology  of  the  new  life. 
The  cardinal  error  in  religious  life  is  the  at- 
tempt to  live  without  proper  environment " 
(see  Drummond,  Natural  Law  in  Spiritual 
World,   253-284).     Human  life   from  Adam 


70 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


does  not  stand  the  test, — only  divine-human 
life  in  Christ  can  secure  us  from  falling.  This 
is  the  work  of  Christ,  now  that  he  has  as- 
cended and  taken  to  himself  his  power,  namely, 
to  give  his  life  more  and  more  fully  to  the 
church,  until  it  shall  grow  up  in  all  things  into 
him,  the  Head,  and  shall  fitly  express  his  glory 
to  the  world. 

As  the  accomplished  organist  discloses  un- 
suspected capabilities  of  his  instrument,  so 
Christ  brings  into  activity  all  the  latent  powers 
of  the  human  soul.  *'  I  was  five  years  in  the 
ministry,"  said  an  American  preacher,  "  be- 
fore I  realized  that  my  Saviour  is  alive."  Dr. 
R.  W.  Dale  has  left  on  record  the  almost  un- 
utterable feelings  that  stirred  his  soul  when  he 
first  realized  this  truth ;  see  Walker,  The  Spirit 
and  the  Incarnation,  preface,  v.  Many  have 
struggled  in  vain  against  sin  until  they  have 
admitted  Christ  to  their  hearts, — ^then  they 
could  say :  "  this  is  the  victory  that  hath  over- 
come the  world,   even   our   faith"    (i   John 

5:4). 

Go  out,  God  will  go  in; 
Die  thou,  and  let  him  live; 
Be  not,  and  he  will  be ; 
Wait,  and  he'll  all  things  give. 

71 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


The  best  way  to  get  air  out  of  a  vessel  is  to 
pour  water  in.  Only  in  Christ  can  we  find  our 
pardon,  peace,  purity,  and  power.  He  is 
'*  made  unto  us  wisdom  from  God,  and  justi- 
fication, and  sanctification,  and  redemption " 
(i  Cor.  1:30).  A  medical  man  says:  "The 
only  radical  remedy  for  dipsomania  is  re- 
ligiomania  "  (quoted  in  William  James,  Vari- 
eties of  Religious  Experience,  268).  It  is  easy 
to  break  into  an  empty  house;  the  spirit  cast 
out  returns,  finds  the  house  empty,  brings 
seven  others,  and  "  the  last  state  of  that  man 
becometh  worse  than  the  first"  (Matt.  12: 
45).  There  is  no  safety  in  simply  expelling 
sin;  we  need  also  to  bring  in  Christ;  in  fact, 
only  he  can  enable  us  to  expel  not  only  actual 
sin  but  the  love  of  it. 

Alexander  McLaren:  '*  If  we  are  '  in  Christ,' 
we  are  like  a  diver  in  his  crystal  bell,  and 
have  a  solid  though  invisible  wall  around  us, 
which  keeps  all  sea-monsters  off  us,  and  com- 
municates with  the  upper  air,  whence  we  draw 
the  breath  of  calm  life  and  can  work  in 
security  though  in  the  ocean  depths."  John 
Caird,  Fund.  Ideas,  2 :  98 — "  How  do  we  know 
that  the  life  of  God  has  not  departed  from 


7z 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


nature?  Because  every  spring  we  witness  the 
annual  miracle  of  nature's  revival,  every  sum- 
mer and  autumn  the  waving  corn.  How  do 
we  know  that  Christ  has  not  departed  from  the 
world?  Because  he  imparts  to  the  soul  that 
trusts  him  a  power,  a  purity,  a  peace,  which 
are  beyond  all  that  nature  can  give."  See  A. 
H.  Strong,  Miscellanies,  i :  53-55. 

(e)  Union  with  Christ  brings  about 
a  fellowship  of  Christ  with  the  believer, 
— Christ  takes  part  in  all  the  labors, 
temptations,  and  sufferings  of  his  peo- 
ple; a  fellowship  of  the  believer  with 
Christ, — so  that  Christ's  whole  experi- 
ence on  earth  is  in  some  measure  repro- 
duced in  him;  a  fellowship  of  all  be- 
lievers with  one  another, — furnishing 
a  basis  for  the  spiritual  unity  of 
Christ's  people  on  earth,  and  for  the 
eternal  communion  of  heaven.  The 
doctrine  of  Union  with  Christ  is  there- 
fore the  indispensable  preparation  for 
Ecclesiology,  and  for  Eschatology 

73 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


If  Christ  be  only  man,  then  his  union  with 
God  and  our  union  with  God  in  him  will  be 
only  union  of  sympathy,  character,  and  pur- 
pose. But  if  Christ  be  God,  then  his  union 
and  our  union  with  the  Father  is  a  union  of 
life,  and  we  can  say  with  Paul :  "  I  live,  yet 
not  I:  Christ  liveth  in  me"  (Gal.  2:20). 

Fellowship  of  Christ  with  the  believer :  Phil. 
4:13 — "I  can  do  all  things  in  him  that 
strengtheneth  me";  Heb.  4:15 — "For  we 
have  not  a  high  priest  that  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities " ;  cf.  Is. 
63 :  g—"  In  all  their  affliction  he  was  afflicted." 
Heb.  2 :  18 — "  in  that  he  himself  hath  suffered 
being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  succor  them  that 
are  tempted  " — are  being  tempted,  are  under 
temptation.  Bp.  Wordsworth :  "  By  his  pas- 
sion he  acquired  compassion/'  2  Cor.  2 :  14 — 
"  thanks  be  unto  God,  who  always  leadeth 
us  in  triumph  in  Christ " — Christ  leads  us  in 
triumph,  but  his  triumph  is  ours,  even  if  it  be 
a  triumph  over  us.  One  with  him,  we  partici- 
pate in  his  joy  and  in  his  sovereignty.  Rev. 
3 :  21' — "  He  that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to 
him  to  sit  down  with  me  in  my  throne."  W. 
F.  Taylor  on  Rom.  8 :  9 — "  The  Spirit  of  God 


74 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


dwelleth  in  you  ....  if  any  man  hath  not  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his  " — Christ 
dwells  in  us,  says  the  apostle.  But  do  we  ac- 
cept him  as  a  resident,  or  as  a  ruler?  Eng- 
land was  first  represented  at  King  Thebau's 
court  by  her  resident.  This  official  could  re- 
buke, and  even  threaten,  but  no  more, — Thebau 
was  sovereign.  Burma  knew  no  peace,  till 
England  ruled.  So  Christ  does  not  consent  to 
be  represented  by  a  mere  resident.  He  must 
himself  dwell  within  the  soul,  and  he  must 
reign."     Christina  Rossetti,  Thee  Only: 

Lord,  we  are  rivers  running  to  thy  sea, 
Our  waves  and  ripples  all  derived  from  thee; 
A  nothing  we  should  have,  a  nothing  be, 
Except  for  thee. 

Sweet  are  the  waters  of  thy  shoreless  sea;     . 
Make  sweet  our  waters  that  make  haste  to  thee; 
Pour  in  thy  sweetness,  that  ourselves  may  be 
Sweetness  to  thee. 

Of  the  believer  with  Christ:  Phil.  3:10 — 
"  that  I  may  know  him,  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of  his  suffer- 
ings, becoming  conformed  unto  his  death  " ; 
Col.  1 :  24 — "  fill  up  on  my  part  that  which  is 


75 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


lacking  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh 
for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the  church " ; 
I  Pet.  4:  13 — "  partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings. 
The  Christian  reproduces  Christ's  life  in  minia- 
ture, and,  in  a  true  sense,  lives  it  over  again. 
Only  upon  the  principle  of  union  with  Christ 
can  we  explain  how  the  Christian  instinctively 
applies  to  himself  the  prophecies  and  promises 
which  originally  and  primarily  were  uttered 
with  reference  to  Christ :  ''  Thou  wilt  not  leave 
my  soul  to  Sheol ;  Neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thy 
holy  one  to  see  corruption"  (Ps.  16:  10,  11). 
This  fellowship  is  the  ground  of  the  promises 
made  to  beHeving  prayer:  John  14:13 — 
"  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  that 
will  I  do  " ;  Westcott,  Bib.  Com.,  in  loco:  "  The 
meaning  of  the  phrase  ['  in  my  name ']  is  '  as 
being  one  with  me  even  as  I  am  revealed  to 
you.'  Its  two  correlatives  are  '  in  me  '  and  the 
Pauline  '  in  Christ'  "  "  All  things  are  yours  " 
(i  Cor.  3:21),  because  Christ  is  universal 
King,  and  all  believers  are  exalted  to  fellow- 
ship with  him.  After  the  battle  of  Sedan, 
King  William  asked  a  wounded  Prussian  of- 
ficer whether  it  were  well  with  him.  "  All  is 
well   where   your   majesty   leads!"   was   the 


76 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


reply.  Phil,  i :  21 — "  For  to  me  to  live  is 
Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain."  Paul  indeed  uses 
the  words  '  Christ '  and  *  church  *  as  inter- 
changeable terms:  i  Cor.  12:  12 — "  as  the  body 
is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  ....  so  also 
is  Christ."  Denney,  Studies  in  Theology,  171 — 
"  There  is  not  in  the  N.  T.  from  beginning  to 
end,  in  the  record  of  the  original  and  genuine 
Christian  life,  a  single  word  of  despondency 
or  gloom.  It  is  the  most  buoyant,  exhilarating 
and  joyful  book  in  the  world."  This  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  writers  believe  in  a  living  and 
exalted  Christ,  and  know  themselves  to  be  one 
with  him.  They  descend  crowned  into  the 
arena.  In  the  Soudan,  every  morning  for  half 
an  hour  before  General  Gordon's  tent  there 
lay  a  white  handkerchief.  The  most  press- 
ing message,  even  on  matters  of  life  and 
death,  waited  till  that  handkerchief  was  with- 
drawn. It  was  the  signal  that  Christ  and 
Gordon  were  in  communion  with  each  other. 

Of  all  believers  with  one  another:  John  17: 
21 — "  that  they  may  all  be  one  " ;  i  Cor.  10: 17 
— "  we,  who  are  many  are  one  bread,  one  body : 
for  we  all  partake  of  the  one  bread  " ;  Eph. 
2: 15 — "  create  in  himself  of  the  two  one  new 


77 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


man,  so  making  peace  " ;  i  John  i :  3 — "  that 
ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  us :  yea,  and 
our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ " — here  the  word  xoipcouca 
is  used.  Fellowship  with  each  other  is  the 
effect  and  result  of  the  fellowship  of  each  with 
God  in  Christ.  Compare  John  10:  16 — "they 
shall  become  one  flock,  one  shepherd  " ;  West- 
cott.  Bib.  Com.,  in  loco:  "  The  bond  of  fellow- 
ship is  shown  to  lie  in  the  common  relation  to 

one  Lord Nothing  is  said  of  one  '  fold ' 

under  the  new  dispensation."  Here  is  a  unity, 
not  of  external  organization,  but  of  common 
life.  Of  this  the  visible  church  is  the  conse- 
quence and  expression.  But  this  communion 
is  not  limited  to  earth, — it  is  perpetuated  be- 
yond death:  i  Thess.  4: 17 — ''  so  shall  we  ever 
be  with  the  Lord";  Heb.  12:23— "to  the 
general  assembly  and  church  of  the  firstborn 
who  are  enrolled  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect";  Rev.  21  and  22 — the  city  of 
God,  the  new  Jerusalem,  is  the  image  of  per- 
fect society,  as  well  as  of  intensity  and  fulness 
of  life  in  Christ.  The  ordinances  express  the 
essence  of  Ecclesiology' — union  with  Christ — 


78 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


for  Baptism  symbolizes  the  incorporation  of 
the  believer  in  Christ,  while  the  Lord's  Supper 
symbolizes  the  incorporation  of  Christ  in  the 
believer.  Christianity  is  a  social  matter,  and 
the  true  Christian  feels  the  need  of  being  with 
and  among  his  brethren.  The  Romans  could 
not  understand  why  "  this  new  sect "  must  be 
holding  meetings  all  the  time — even  daily 
meetings.  Why  could  they  not  go  singly,  or  in 
families,  to  the  temples,  and  make  offerings  to 
their  God,  and  then  come  away,  as  the  pagans 
did?  It  was  this  meeting  together  which  ex- 
posed them  to  persecution  and  martyrdom.  It 
was  the  natural  and  inevitable  expression  of 
their  union  with  Christ  and  so  of  their  union 
with  one  another. 

The  consciousness  of  union  with  Christ  gives 
assurance  of  salvation.  It  is  a  great  stimulus 
to  believing  prayer  and  to  patient  labor.  It  is 
a  duty  to  "  know  what  is  the  hope  of  his  call- 
ing, what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inherit- 
ance in  the  saints,  and  what  the  exceeding 
greatness  of  his  power  to  us-ward  who  be- 
lieve"  (Eph.  i:i8,  19).  Christ's  command, 
"Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you"  (John  15:4), 
implies  that  we  are  both  to  realize  and  to  con- 


79 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


firm  this  union,  by  active  exertion  of  our  own 
wills.  We  are  to  abide  in  him  by  an  entire 
consecration,  and  to  let  him  abide  in  us  by  an 
appropriating  faith.  We  are  to  give  ourselves 
to  Christ,  and  to  take  in  return  the  Christ 
who  gives  himself  to  us, — in  other  words,  we 
are  to  believe  Christ's  promises  and  to  act 
upon  them.  All  sin  consists  in  the  sundering 
of  man's  life  from  God,  and  most  systems 
of  falsehood  in  religion  are  attempts  to  save 
man  without  merging  his  life  in  God's  once 
more.  The  only  religion  that  can  save  man- 
kind is  the  religion  that  fills  the  whole  heart 
and  the  whole  life  with  God,  and  that  aims  to 
interpenetrate  universal  humanity  with  that 
same  living  Christ  who  has  already  made  him- 
self one  with  the  believer.  This  conscious- 
ness of  union  with  Christ  gives  "  boldness  " 
{nappTja'ta — Acts  4: 13;  i  John  5:  14)  toward 
men  and  toward  God.  The  word  belongs  to 
the  Greek  democracies.  Freemen  are  bold. 
Demosthenes  boasts  of  his  frankness.  Christ 
frees  us  from  the  hide-bound,  introspective, 
self-conscious  spirit.  In  him  we  become  free, 
demonstrative,  outspoken.  So  we  find  in 
John's    epistles,   that   boldness    in   prayer    is 

80 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


spoken  of  as  a  virtue,  and  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  urges  us  to  "draw  near 
with  boldness  unto  the  throne  of  grace  "  (Heb. 
4:16).  An  engagement  of  marriage  is  not 
the  same  as  marriage.  The  parties  may  be  still 
distant  from  each  other.  Many  Christians  get 
just  near  enough  to  Christ  to  be  engaged  to 
him.  This  seems  to  be  the  experience  of 
Christian  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  But  our 
privilege  is  to  have  a  present  Christ,  and  to 
do  our  work  not  only  for  him,  but  in  him. 

Since  Christ  and  we  are  one, 
Why  should  we  doubt  or  fear? 

We  two  are  so  joined, 
He'll  not  be  in  heaven, 
And  leave  me  behind. 

We  append  a  few  statements  with  regard  to 
this  union  and  its  consequences,  from  noted 
names  in  theology  and  the  church.  Luther: 
"  By  faith  thou  art  so  glued  to  Christ  that  of 
thee  and  him  there  becomes  as  it  were  one 
person,  so  that  with  confidence  thou  canst  say : 
*  I  am  Christ, — that  is,  Christ's  righteousness, 
victory,  etc.j  are  mine  ' ;  and  Christ  in  turn  can 

81 


UNION  WITH  CHRIST 


say:  *I  am  that  sinner, — that  is,  his  sins,  his 
death,  etc.y  are  mine,  because  he  dings  to  me 
and  I  to  him,  for  we  have  been  joined  through 
faith  into  one  flesh  and  bone.'  "  Calvin :  "  I 
attribute  the  highest  importance  to  the  connec- 
tion between  the  head  and  the  members;  to 
the  inhabitation  of  Christ  in  our  hearts;  in  a 
word,  to  the  mystical  union  by  which  we  enjoy 
him,  so  that,  being  made  ours,  he  makes  us 
partakers  of  the  blessings  with  which  he  is 
furnished."  John  Bunyan :  "  The  Lord  led 
me  into  the  knowledge  of  the  mystery  of  union 
with  Christ,  that  I  was  joined  to  him,  that  I 
was  bone  of  his  bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh. 
By  this  also  my  faith  in  him  as  my  righteous- 
ness was  the  more  confirmed ;  for  if  he  and  I 
were  one,  then  his  righteousness  was  mine,  his 
merits  mine,  his  victory  also  mine.  Now  could 
I  see  myself  in  heaven  and  on  earth  at  once — 
in  heaven  by  my  Christ,  my  risen  head,  my 
righteousness  and  life,  though  on  earth  by  my 
body  or  person."  Edwards :  "  Faith  is  the 
soul's  active  uniting  with  Christ.  God  sees  fit 
that,  in  order  to  a  union's  being  established 
between  two  intelligent  active  beings,  there 
should  be  the  mutual  act  of  both,  that  each 


82 


•     •  ...  •     ••< 


UNION  ivrrM'VmisT'  •''••  '•  ••"' 


should  receive  the  other,  as  entirely  joining 
themselves  to  one  another."    Andrew  Fuller: 
"  I   have   no    doubt   that   the   imputation   of 
Christ*?  righteousness    presupposes    a    union 
with  him;  since  there  is  no  perceivable  fitness 
in  bestowing  benefits  on  one  for  another's  sake, 
where  there  is  no  union  or  relation  between." 
See  Luther,  quoted,  with  other  references, 
in  Thomasius,  Christi  Person  und  Werk,  3: 
325.     See  also  Calvin,  Institutes,  i :  660 ;  Ed- 
wards, Works,  4 :  66,  69,  70 ;  Andrew  Fuller, 
Works,  2 :  685 ;  Pascal,  Thoughts,  Eng.  trans., 
429;  Hooker,   Eccl.   Polity,  book   5,   ch.   56; 
Tillotson,  Sermons,  3 :  307 ;  Trench,  Studies  in 
Gospels,  284,  and  Christ  the  True  Vine,  in 
Hulsean  Lectures ;  Schoberlein,  in  Studien  und 
Kritiken,   1847:7-69;  Caird,  on  Union  with 
God,  in  Scotch  Sermons,  sermon  2;  Godet,  on 
the  Ultimate   Design   of   Man,  in   Princeton 
Rev.,  Nov.  1880 — the  design  is  "  God  in  man 
and  man  in  God  " ;  Baird,  Elohim  Revealed 
590-617;  Upham,  Divine  Union,  Interior  Life 
Life  of  Madame  Guyon  and  Fenelon;  A.  J 
Gordon,  In  Christ;  McDuff,  In  Christo;  J 
Denham    Smith,    Life-truths,    25-98;    A.    H 
Strong,    Philosophy    and    Religion,    220-225 

83 


''U^-rO^'Wl^H  CHRIST 


Bishop  Hall's  Treatise  on  The  Church  Mys- 
tical; Andrew  Murray,  Abide  in  Christ; 
Stearns,  Evidence  of  Christian  Experience, 
145,  174,  179;  F.  B.  Meyer,  Christian  Living 
— essay  on  Appropriation  of  Christ,  vs.  mere 
imitation  of  Christ;  Sanday,  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  supplementary  essay  on  the  Mystic 
Union;  H.  B.  Smith,  System  of  Theology,  531 ; 
J.  M.  Campbell,  The  Indwelling  Christ. 


84 


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